The Living Legend: A Last Enemy Prequel by Dan E. Hendrickson
In a café in Tokyo, a bullet cuts through the forehead of the U.S. Ambassador to Japan as his son looks on.
In Mombasa, Kenya, two vans with an abducted group of young people pull into a large storage facility, joining 30 other vans. Forty armed men escort dozens of young girls with their hands tied behind their backs and sacks pulled over their heads. “Do not damage the merchandise,” a voice hollers over a loudspeaker.
These seemingly disconnected events in different parts of the world find a common thread in award-winning writer Dan E. Hendrickson’s riveting The Living Legend: A Last Enemy Prequel (Bowker).
Tommy Williams, a crackerjack Annapolis graduate, changes his life course and becomes a Navy SEAL after the most rigorous of training, with his sole obsession to track down the agent who assassinated his father, the lethal killer known by the codename The Chameleon.
In Kenya, it’s 1979 — some 88 years after Muslim raiders begin a similar onslaught on a local Kenyan fishing village, stealing their young and their women and placing them into human slavery, something they have done for more than a thousand years. Now, Makenna Aalee, the great granddaughter of the warrior they called The Legend, carries the torch and tries to right these great wrongs amid political forces fighting to thwart her.
But now, Makenna also finds herself in a battle of survival pitted against The Chameleon.
A peek inside the author’s background makes no reference to military background. Ironically, it makes much mention of volunteer Christian ministry work and a degree in Practical Theology. Hendrickson does show experience in law enforcement, security, martial arts and firefighting.
Yet he describes the lives, actions and emotions of Williams and Aalee liked he lived them himself. His writing is smooth and informative, the dialogue crisp and realistic, his story terrifying and mesmerizing.
Hendrickson devotes considerable pages to the SEAL training of Williams, detailing the arduous drills, exercises and mind games — all the while showing how Williams shines. An intricate War Games drill captures the essence of Williams’ brilliance as a thinker and a leader. By the time he is through, he is as ready as anyone to be deployed and serve his country.
Meanwhile, the author is able to shift gears effectively and describe the practice of human trafficking from both a ground-level vantage point to a higher-level perspective where corrupt government leaders look to capitalize on it to save their financial necks.
The Living Legend: A Last Enemy Prequel is a gripping narrative that is hard to put down. It introduces us to characters who are ably defined by their will, their passion, their strength, their intelligence and their loyalty. By the time the book ends, readers will want to attach the “Legend” moniker to more than just the decades-old Kenyan warrior.
About Dan Hendrickson:
Dan E. Hendrickson was born in Sheridan, Wyoming in 1962 near the rustic Big Horn Mountains. Although Dan had an aptitude for investigative reporting, his interests were in other areas. He went on to do much volunteer Christian ministry work and continues to pursue those endeavors. Some of his other work experience includes law enforcement, security, emergency medical technician and firefighting. He and his wife Cheryl currently reside in Pennsylvania where he runs an auto detailing business, does minister work and writes both fiction and nonfiction books. Visit www.danehendrickson.com.
Wow! Jim thank you very much for all the positive feedback.