This book is bargain priced from 12/15/2012 until 12/01/2014
Jake Eldar’s and Miriam Schaffer’s names may kill them.
Jake manages a bookstore in Brooklyn. Miriam is a secretary at a Philadelphia law firm. Both grew up in Israel and emigrated to build new lives in America. Neither knows the other exists…until the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad uses their identities in an operation to assassinate a high-ranking Hezbollah commander in Doha, Qatar.
Now Hezbollah plans to kill them both.
Jake, Miriam and ten other innocents in five countries – the Doha 12 – awake to find their identities stolen and their lives caught between Mossad and Hezbollah in an international game of murder and reprisal. Jake stumbles upon Hezbollah’s plot but can’t convince the police it exists. When his wife is murdered in a botched hit meant for him, Jake and Miriam try desperately to outrun and outfight their pursuers while shielding Jake’s young daughter from the killers on their trail.
Hezbollah, however, has a fallback plan: hundreds of people will die if Jake and Miriam survive.
Inspired by actual events, Doha 12 will sweep you from the suburbs of Beirut and Tel Aviv to a pulse-pounding climax in the wintry streets of Manhattan as Jake and Miriam race along the thin, faded gray line between good and bad, hero and villain, truth and lies.
Targeted Age Group: 18+
Book Price: 2.99
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How is Writing In Your Genre Different from Others?
The action thriller genre makes it far too easy for the protagonists to fall into the stoic alpha male/helpless female cliché. I didn’t want a super-special-forces stud as my male lead – that’s been done to death and I don’t find it very interesting. At the same time, he had to have some combat experience so he could credibly do some of the things he was going to have to do. Jake’s background covers all this – born on Long Island, moved to Israel as a boy, served in the Israeli Army, then returned to America.
Likewise, a lot of the thrillers I’ve read have demoted the female lead to a secondary role, tagging along with the hero and being the comely sex interest and object to be protected. I wanted Miriam to be an at-least-equal partner who doesn’t hesitate to get her hands very dirty. The last thing I wanted was a helpless heroine. This meant Miriam had to have her own badass side, and that she needed to be big enough and fit enough to be able to kick ass on her own behalf.
I also didn’t want the antagonists to be yet another variation of the “crazy Muslim terrorist.” There are already far too many instances of that in books, films and TV shows. It’s lazy and inaccurate. It wasn’t too long ago that we were worried about the Irish Republican Army, but despite the fact Catholicism was a major part of their program, nobody characterized them as “crazy Christian terrorists.” I wanted instead to introduce the idea that both Arabs and Israelis believe they’re doing their duty to their respective nations and that each side considers the other to be a pack of terrorists. I wanted to make sure readers understand why Alayan does what he does as much as they know why Gur does. If at any point the reader has to wonder who to root for…well, good.
What Advice Would You Give Aspiring Writers?
Read widely, and read a lot. Learn what works, what doesn’t, and what’s overused.
Gain some real-world experience. The real world is far more strange, beautiful, ugly, puzzling, frightening and exhilarating than anything you’ll see on TV or in a computer game. It’s easy to spot an author who doesn’t know how the real world works; don’t be that person.
Travel. Even if you don’t use the places you travel to in your writing, just the experience of going someplace different and seeing some of this planet personally will help you depict your settings and characters. Plus, those long airplane rides give you more time to read.
Author Bio:
I’ve been an Air Force intelligence officer, information technology manager, computer-game artist, set designer, Jeopardy! contestant, and now an emergency management specialist. I’ve had training in architectural rendering, terrorist incident response and maritime archaeology, but not all at the same time. I tweet (@lcharnes) on shipwrecks, scuba diving, archaeology and art crime.
I have two published novels available in multiple editions: international thriller DOHA 12, and near-future thriller SOUTH.
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Back in 2010, a Mossad hit team assassinated a top Hamas operative, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in Dubai. They were less-than-slick about it and ended up on a number of surveillance videos. The Emiratis posted the footage on YouTube – it’s kind of interesting to watch. Anyway, the team used for their covers the identities of real Israeli dual-nationals living in Israel. These people’s other citizenship countries were extremely perturbed by this. Of course, Hamas was hopping mad.
So I got to thinking: what would have happened if Hamas decided to go after these poor schlubs whose identities were stolen? Voila: Doha 12 was born.
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