KIRKUS: "Another stellar ride from Bond; checking out Pono’s first adventure isn’t a prerequisite, but this will make readers want to."Surfer and Special Forces vet Pono Hawkins quits sunny Hawaii for Maine’s brutal winter to help former SF buddy Bucky Franklin beat a murder rap. The same Bucky who once sent Pono to military prison then married his girlfriend Lexie. But in Special Forces you never leave a buddy behind no matter what they’ve done. Especially if they once saved your life.An unknown sniper has shot environmental exec Ronnie Dalt, and the police say it was Bucky. So Pono finds himself hooked up with Bucky’s wife Lexie trying to find Bucky an alibi. And meets an old flame, the fierce and beautiful attorney Erica, and then the dead man’s wife Abigail, who has never met a man she couldn’t devour alive.Unknown killers stalk Pono as he tries to unravel Ronnie’s death. Nothing is certain, no one can be trusted, no place is safe. There’s a million square miles of wildlands out there to hide a man’s body. And with a rap sheet that includes two jail sentences, Pono is the number one target of every cop in the state.Sadly Maine turns out to be as politically corrupt as Hawaii, with huge energy corporations gobbling up the state’s beautiful mountains and purchasing its politicians at bargain prices. Once again Pono finds himself hunted, shot at, betrayed, stalked by knife-wielding assassins, and in love with three women.Second in the Pono Hawkins series after the critically-acclaimed, best-seller SAVING PARADISE, KILLING MAINE is an insider’s view of crooked Maine politics, the state’s magical and fast-disappearing natural beauty, and how a lone commando hunts down those who hunt him, and is based on the author’s own experiences in Maine, the Middle East and elsewhere.KIRKUS Review:In Bond’s latest thriller, Hawaiian surfer Pono Hawkins books a flight to Maine to help a fellow Special Forces vet duck a murder conviction.Pono doesn’t consider Bucky Franklin a friend. Years ago, Bucky left with Pono’s love, Lexie, and provided testimony in one of two cases that sent Pono to jail (although both convictions were overturned). But Bucky saved Pono’s life when they were in Special Forces, and he’s determined to help when Lexie tells him he’s been arrested for killing environmentalist Ronnie Dalt. It doesn’t look good for Bucky. The murder weapon was his, and his alibi is shaky. But Pono knows he’s on the right track when someone tries to shoot him. He starts a dangerous relationship with Dalt’s widow, Abigail, and gradually exposes a string of political unscrupulousness. Bond’s novel, the second to feature Pono, makes its protagonist credible as an amateur sleuth; Pono’s smart enough to enlist hacker pal Mitchell, whose skills draw more viable suspects than Pono can find on his own. And his beloved home is always on his mind as he suffers the Maine winter hoping to wrap everything up before an upcoming surfing festival, the Tahiti Tsunami. The story has an unusual villain, WindPower LLC, whose deafening, monstrous turbines are an incessant presence throughout the story. The political and financial muscle behind WindPower is abundantly clear from the beginning, immediately demonizing the company. The book, however, isn’t short on mysteries. Abigail, for one, inexplicably vanishes, a disappearance that the cops blame on Pono, as well as a couple of murders. Like in Pono’s previous story, the surfer’s fondness for women creates a triad of drama: Abigail; lawyer Erica, a lover from back when Pono was a mere 14; and Lexie (Pono won’t sleep with her while Bucky’s in jail, but it’s obvious that he’s trying his hardest not to). Pono’s relationship with his Pa is the strongest; the most heartfelt moments are Pono rushing back to Hawaii, regardless of cops wanting him to stay in Maine, when Pa’s diagnosed with cancer.Another stellar ride from Bond.

Killing Maine (A Pono Hawkins Thriller)

Literature & Fiction

Bond, Mike

United States

Big City Press

The tradition of the poet warrior endures throughout human history, finding expression in the Bible's King David, the Vikings of Iceland, Japan's Samurai, the Shambhala teachings of Tibet, the ancient Greeks and medieval knights. Mike Bond, an award-winning poet, critically acclaimed novelist, ecologist, and war and human rights journalist, is in the same tradition.
Initially published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti in City Lights Books, Bond has won multiple prizes for his poetry and prose, and now brings the multitude of his diverse life to his remarkable new book of poetry. His poetry dances between reflections on the majesty of wilderness, the joys and sorrows of love, and passionate expressions of life's greatest existential questions. Prefacing the book is Bond's insightful essay on why poetry is an essential part of cognitive awareness, "how we find meaning in the incomprehensible, beautiful, tragic and sacred mystery of life."
Poetry, Bond notes, has existed since our Paleolithic days, found not just in humans but also in the songs of wolves and whales, and an imperative for everyone to enjoy. "Reading poems enlarges our personal awareness of life's exuberance, its terrible destiny," he says. "To learn in our own lives from the visions of others."

The Drum That Beats Within Us

Poetry

Special Forces veteran Pono Hawkins races from a Tahiti surfing contest to France when he learns that an ISIS terrorist he’d thought was dead, Mustafa al-Boudienne, has an Iranian backpack nuclear weapon and plans to destroy Paris. Pono was once Mustafa’s prisoner in Iraq and is now the only one left alive to identify him.
When Pono reaches Paris he finds that his closest comrade has been kidnapped, and that the date to destroy the city is fast approaching. Joining forces with allies from US and French intelligence, and with a fearless and brilliant French agent, Anne Ronsard, with whom he soon falls in love, Pono sets out against impossible odds to catch and kill Mustafa and his terrorist cell before they can destroy the most beautiful city on earth. As they dig deeper into the terrorist networks, their own lives are more and more endangered, while the terrorists change tactics again and again to outwit them as the time to save the city runs out.
Spanning a fast two weeks in and around Paris, Goodbye Paris is a window to today’s France, its elegance and poverty, humanism and fanaticism, beauty and despair, to the still-magical French countryside with its white castles and dark forests, the food, wine, and joyous ironic people, the magic of the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame and the tragic fate awaiting them.
Another Pono Hawkins adventure following the best-sellers Saving Paradise and Killing Maine, Goodbye Paris takes us into never-before revealed depths of covert action on three continents, to insider secrets in the war against terrorism, into intense memories of combat in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, and to the depths of love when everything seems lost.
Based on the author’s years of experience with terrorism and Middle East wars, and his deep knowledge of French and US intelligence and military operations, Goodbye Paris is a stunning thriller, an entrancing love story, and an exciting account of anti-terror operations from Paris and Morocco to Afghanistan.
Goodbye Paris is a hallmark Mike Bond thriller: tense, exciting, and alive with real details and places, and that will keep you up all night.

Goodbye Paris (A Pono Hawkins Thriller)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

"To tourists Hawaii is an air-conditioned tanning booth with shopping, booze, bikinis, and lots of smiling low-paid help. The real Hawaii is something else?"When a beautiful journalist drowns mysteriously off Waikiki, former Special Forces veteran Pono Hawkins, now a well-known Hawaii surfer and international surfing journalist, quickly gets embroiled in trying to solve her death. What he learns soon targets him for murder or life in prison as a cabal of powerful corporations, foreign killers and crooked politicians focuses the blame on him.Haunted by memories of Afghanistan, and determined to protect the Hawaii he loves from dirty politics tied to huge destructive energy developments, Pono turns to Special Forces buddies and his own skills to fight his deadly enemies, trying to both save himself and track down her killers.A national US best-seller, Saving Paradise is alive with the sights, sounds and history of Hawaii, is a rich portrait of what Pono calls "the seamy side of paradise", and a relentless thriller of politics, lies, manhunts and remorseless murder.

Saving Paradise (A Pono Hawkins Thriller)

Genre Fiction

Product Description From its riveting start in the night skies of Afghanistan to its stunning end in the recent Paris terrorist attacks, Assassins is an insider's story of the last 30 years of war between Islam and the West. A US commando, a French woman doctor, a Russian major, a British female journalist, a top CIA operator, an Afghani woman, and a Taliban warlord fight for their lives and loves in the dangerous streets and lethal deserts of the Middle East.Drop by parachute into the deadly mountains of Afghanistan, feel the passion of love when at any instant you both can die, experience the bone-chilling fear of an American agent in an Al Qaeda group and of women who face death every day, fight door to door in the bloody cities of Iraq, know the terror of battle inside a Russian tank - it's all there, all real, in Assassins.Did the Saudis finance 9/11? Did GW Bush let Osama bin Laden escape Afghanistan and then lie about Weapons of Mass Destruction so he could invade Iraq? Did Obama's decision to leave Iraq in 2011 lead to the rise of ISIS? It's all there, all real, in Assassins. Review "An exhilarating spy novel that offers equal amounts of ingenuity and intrigue." - Kirkus (Featured Review) "Packs one thrilling punch after the other. But equally important in making the novel an especially memorable one, are the numerous supporting characters... A first-rate thriller. - Book Chase "Powerful, true to life, and explosive... A story that could be ripped right out of the headlines." - Just Reviews "Mike Bond writes with an urgency few other authors have been able to maintain. Mailer was able to do it to some degree. Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson had their ears to the ground. But Mike Bond has assumed this mantle for the 21st century." - BookTrib "Assassins can be terrifying, chilling and more, but it also will enlighten its readers... It's an eye-opener, a page-turner." - CultureBuzz "An epic spy story... rife with tension and feeling... A cohesive and compelling story of political intrigue, religious fanaticism, love, brotherhood and the ultimate pursuit of peace." - Honolulu Star-Advertiser "A thrilling read in which tension never relaxes.. that will sear the reader's memory long after the last page is turned! Highly recommended, well-crafted fiction that tells the vivid story of an endless war!" - Crystal Book Reviews "Riveting, thrilling, and... so realistic and fast-paced that the reader felt as if they were actually there... Definitely not the propaganda spewed out by CNN and the other major news sources over the last 10-15 years... This book was earth-shattering for me." - NetGalley "The action is outstanding and realistic. The suspense flows from page to page... Wow, I wish everyone could read and understand this book." - Goodreads About the Author M I K E B O N D is the author of nearly a dozen best-selling novels, a war and human rights journalist, ecologist, international energy expert and award-winning poet. He has been called the master of the existential thriller (BBC), one of America's best thriller writers (Culture Buzz), a nature writer of the caliber of Matthiessen (WordDreams), and one of the 21st Century's most exciting authors (Washington Times). He has covered wars, revolutions, terrorism, military dictatorships and death squads in the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and Africa, and environmental issues including elephant poaching, habitat loss, wilderness survival, whales, wolves and many other endangered species. His novels place the reader in intense experiences in the world's most perilous places, in dangerous liaisons, political and corporate conspiracies, wars and revolutions, making readers sweat with [their] relentless pace (Kirkus) in that fatalistic margin where life and death are one and the existential reality leaves one caring only to survive. (Sunday Oregonian). He has climbed mountains on every continent and trekked more than 50,000 miles in the Himalayas, Mongoli

Assassins: A Tale of Love and War

Literary

Two hunters and their guide find a crashed cocaine plane in the Montana wilderness. Each has a reason to steal the cocaine - who will? The two who do steal it soon find themselves hunted by the Mexican cocaine cartel, the DEA, Las Vegas killers, their guide, and the police of several states. Zack, a former NFL star now a TV sports icon, owes two million to some nasty people in Vegas. Steve, a Wall Street broker, may have lost all of his and Zack's investments. Curt, their guide, a half-Cheyenne mountain man, is trying to save his ranch from an energy company takeover. Diego is an executioner for the cocaine cartel. María Christina, a Harvard grad and Yale MBA, runs the cartel. Whitney Castro is a black girl from the Denver slums, now a brilliant DEA agent. Kenny Stauffenberg is an easy-going Montana sheriff who never gives up a hunt. From the frozen peaks of Montana to the heights of Wall Street, the slums of Denver and the million-dollar tables at Vegas, SNOW is an electric portrait of today's American culture, the invisible line between good and evil, and what people will do in their frantic search for love and freedom.

Snow

An American climber in the Himalayas stumbles on a shipment of backpack nuclear weapons headed into Tibet for use against China. Pursued by spy agencies and other killers across Asia, North Africa, Europe and the United States, he is captured then rescued by a beautiful young woman with whom he forms a deadly liaison. They escape, are captured and escape again, death always at their heels. A terrifying international manhunt and stunning love story, Tibetan Cross is a European best-seller.

Tibetan Cross

HOUSE OF JAGUAR: A tense, dangerous thriller of CIA operations and dirty wars in Latin America, guerrilla battles, drug flights, environmental catastrophes and genocides. Based on the author's own experiences as a war and human rights correspondent there.

House of Jaguar

The Battle of Beirut is worse than Hell, a maelstrom of implacable hatreds and frantic love affairs, of explosions, sniper battles and deadly ambushes. Neill, a journalist on a secret mission for Britain's MI6 intelligence agency, is trying to find Mohammed, a Hezbollah terrorist who could stop the slaughter. André, a French commando, is also hunting Mohammed, to kill him for the death of his brother, blown up with over 400 US Marines and French paratroopers by Hezbollah. For Rosa, a remorseless and passionate Palestinian guerrilla, Mohammed is one of few hopes for her people, and she will die to protect him. And for lovely Anne-Marie, André is the only one who can save her from Hell. Based on the author's own experiences in Lebanon, Syria and the Middle East, Holy War has been praised for its portrayal of civil war, and for its evocation of men and women caught in a deadly crossfire.

Holy War

The Last Savanna

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