Doha 12 (Charnes)

Doha 12
Lance Charnes, 2012
Wombat Group Media
420 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780988690301


Summary
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. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—1960
• Where—Oakland, California, USA
• Education—B.A. University of California, Berkeley; M.S.,California State University, Long Beach
• Currently—lives in Orange County, California


Lance Charnes has been an Air Force intelligence officer, information technology manager, computer-game artist, set designer and Jeopardy! contestant, and is now an emergency management specialist. He’s had training in architectural rendering, terrorist incident response and maritime archaeology, but not all at the same time. His Facebook author page features spies, archaeology and art crime.

Lance is the author of the international thriller DOHA 12, the near-future thriller SOUTH, and the DEWITT AGENCY FILES series of international art-crime novels. All are available in trade paperback and digital editions. He's also a frequent contributor to Macmillan's Criminal Element website. (From the author.)

Visit the author's website.
Follow Lance on Facebook.

Book Reviews
This book does this thing that I feel all thriller books should do, and that is, be engaging within the first 20 pages…There is so much to the book. Such a rich backdrop to what is unfolding. The characters have their own backstories which are great and the scale of what is going on is amazing…These characters are humanized, and the weight of what they do is shown to weigh on them, more than in the physical manner…The treatment of life and death in the literal, figurative and spiritual sense is remarkable, as well as living in fear and allowing circumstances to leave you shortchanged.
The Review Hutch


Mr. Charnes has beaten James Patterson in all categories…The characters are ordinary people drawn from your family, your neighbors, your coworkers. There are no demigods, no super humans, no magical powers, no extraordinary luck. These are people who toil in lower to middle-income jobs reacting to danger the way you would, rising to the occasion as you would, falling apart as you would. Their emotions are deep and visceral.
Seeley James - author, The Geneva Decision


Fast-paced, action-packed thriller that takes the reader on an emotional journey across the globe. I would love to read more.
Juniper Grove

Discussion Questions
1. Doha 12 is based on an actual event in which the Mossad used the names of real dual-national Israelis during an assassination operation. What would you do if you saw your name connected to a major crime in the news? What steps would you take to protect yourself? How do you think your friends and relatives might react?

2. Jake is compelled by circumstances to give up a low-paying job he loves to take a higher-paying job he’s good at, but doesn’t like. Have you ever been placed in that position? How did your decision work out for you in the long run? Would you do the same thing again?

3. Jake hides from Rinnah the nature of the threat against them. If you knew of such a threat to your family but were helpless to protect them, would you still tell them, and what would you say? Do you believe Jake’s feelings of guilt are justified, and if so, why? What do you think Jake should have done?

4. Late in the story, Jake wonders, “What kind of father am I?” (p. 326, paperback edition). How would you answer him? What, if anything, should he have done differently with Eve?

5. Do you believe that a woman can have the attitudes Miriam does and take the actions she does, and still be “womanly” or “feminine”? Do you think she would be a good substitute mother for Eve?

6. Under the same circumstances, would you do to Ziyad what Miriam does? If not, what would you do instead? How did her actions and their consequences change your view of torture?

7. Who do you see as the villains in Doha 12: the Mossad team, Alayan’s team, al-Shami’s team, some combination, or none of them? Explain why.

8. Discuss Alayan’s motives. Do you understand how he came to be what he is? Is he a patriot, a soldier, a terrorist, or some combination? Can someone such as he be a sympathetic character? Why or why not?

9. Compare Alayan’s and al-Shami’s tactics. What moral or ethical differences can you see? How might each one’s tactics be more effective than the other’s, and how might they be less effective?

10. Gur worries whether his Mossad team is a greater threat to Jake and Miriam than Hezbollah (p. 213, paperback edition). Why do you think he has that concern, and is it justified? To what extent should Gur’s team have protected the “Doha 12,” as opposed to concentrating entirely on stopping Alayan’s team?

11. Gur and Kelila become involved during the operation. Given the circumstances and their prior (unconsummated) attraction, do you think this is realistic? Contrast this with Jake’s and Miriam’s failure to act on their growing attraction. If you found yourself drawn to someone during a high-stress situation, would you act on that attraction if it seemed likely you might not get a chance afterward? Why or why not?

12. Real-world gunfights tend to be messy, confused actions, frightening to both participants and onlookers, in which far more shots miss than hit their targets. Did the author portray this reality effectively in the action sequences? Do you find this preferable to the usual Hollywood depiction of gunfights, and why/why not?

13. Are you familiar with any of the real-world locations that appear in Doha 12? If so, do you feel the author presented them effectively and made good use of them? What other locations could the author have used to greater effect, and how might that have changed the action or the story?

14. Consider the various fates of the principal characters. Which ones ended up the way you expected? Which ones had outcomes different from what you expected? If you could change one main character’s fate, whose would it be, and what would you change?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)

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