The Living Legend

In this novel, a Navy SEAL seeking a Russian assassin who murdered his father gets drawn into a political conspiracy in Kenya.

While visiting his diplomat father, Rodney, in Tokyo in 1975, Tommy Williams witnesses him shot to death. The grim moment elicits this response: “I don’t know who you are or why you did this, but I am coming for you.” Tommy doesn’t have much to go on—he receives information that his father, the American ambassador to Japan, may have been killed by a Russian hit man known only as “The Chameleon.” Nevertheless, Tommy remains undaunted and forgoes his plans to attend law school and become a JAG attorney to train as a SEAL instead. Meanwhile, Makena Aalee attempts to persuade the Kenyan government to crack down on the slave trade conducted in the country by Arab traffickers, a cause for which her great-grandfather Tumaini Aalee, widely known as “The Legend,” became famous. Makena becomes an important public figure, but powerful forces within her own government—including President Daniel Arap Amoi—oppose her efforts and plot against her. Makena, her two daughters, and her husband, Bosher Arachar, are kidnapped by The Chameleon. The assassin plans to use her as a pawn to compel Kenya to align itself with the Soviet Union. In this action-packed prequel, Hendrickson deserves great credit for the eccentric quirkiness of making the Kenyan slave trade a key ingredient. But the author follows the unlikely intersection of Tommy’s and Makena’s lives—both share a common enemy in The Chameleon—resulting in a story as melodramatic as it is implausible. At its core, this is a tale about an angry SEAL. In addition, the author’s writing is often leaden, making the novel a bumpy read. And the work offers few authentic characters; The Chameleon, in particular, seems like a pastiche of comic-book villains. At one point, he delivers this line: “I should have killed you with your father, Tommy Williams. We’ll meet again, my friend, I promise.”

An intriguing but uneven revenge tale.