Rosehips in June

By: Mike Bennett

Narrated by: Christopher Hogan

Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

For the sake of freedom, a commando from the famed Devil’s Brigade is called to bear one last burden: to take the mantle of The Warlock. Charged with the authority to use any means necessary to bring America back to glory, the Warlock brokers an audacious plan to end the oppressive reign of the USSR.

In a conference with President Ronald Reagan, CIA Director William Casey has this conversation:

Casey rolled on, "I’m concerned with our clandestine and covert capabilities since Turner left the office in disarray. Not merely capabilities, but authorities and oversight. Since the Church Committee, our capabilities and will to use covert action has atrophied to a dangerous degree."

I have a simple proposition: create an intelligence capability with a single point of contact, a position occupied by a person of special trust and whose name is irrelevant. This person is not in command but will have immeasurable power and influence.

“With that power comes equal responsibility, such that the position is to be filled by someone of unquestionable integrity. This person, within the construct of American interests consistent with the Constitution, more than anything else, will make plans, plans that are intended to change the course of the world.”

The President was not fully taken aback; Casey was a warrior, a deep thinker whose counsel was always measured but tinged with extraordinary vision. Reagan’s face was composed in thought and he allowed, “Please, Bill, go on.”

Casey took a deeper breath, “Of course, although CIA would handle some of the more mundane matters, this position, this person would be far outside the box. The idea is this: this position would have an extrajudicial charter loosely organized around Title 10 and 50 authorities and tailored to satisfy intelligence requirements beyond even the covert activities over which Congress had oversight.

“As such, Mr. President, this person must be fully unattributed to having being given any direction by the Executive Branch—you must be protected, and the person entrusted to this capability must also be disassociated to an official position within any USG framework. In essence, this person is a rogue, as I said—extrajudicial, and therefore deniable."

©2023 Mike Bennett (P)2023 Mike Bennett

The Warlock should be real!

History with a twist! The Warlock is outside the box way of dealing with America's enemies!

A rollicking good Cold War time!

I had been hearing about Col. Mike Bennett's Warlock series, and I thought I would start with the prequel to help set stage before I worked through the rest of the books. I was absolutely NOT disappointed and I was instead very pleased to relive some of the Cold War history through the actions of the protagonists in the book.

I very much enjoyed the book and the narrator did an excellent job with the reading. I have purchased the balance of books in the series on Kindle and will be working my way through them.

If I had any kind of quibble, I would want the book to be twice as long as I did not want it to stop!! :-).

It’s not about rose hips. Or roses hips

I was eating my meal in peace when a van pulled up and the author jumped out, and started yelling a me to write a review. Or at least that’s how I choose to interpret his Twitter request. So here it goes.

I had no idea what was going on at first because I haven’t read the warlock series. As soon as I realized that it clicked. Other than knowing that you don’t have to read the warlock books to enjoy the story.

It begins by introducing fictional characters into real events or historically plausible events. Rather than imagine an alternate timeline he retells what “actually” happened clandestinely during the Cold War. It’s a pretty interesting concept that probably required more imagination than just creating your own world.

The author did a great job highlighting frustrations that intel and military units had with the Clinton administration And incorporates a lot of lesser known real world history such as GREENLIGHT, weaving a story that would inevitably lead to 9/11.

Once you realize that our government isn’t competent enough to create a warlock you will become immediately depressed and probably resort to Twitter heckling of the author and his friends as a coping mechanism.

The audio performance is good but I would have preferred someone with more energy