Charles D. Taylor

Very complex, well populated, and terrifyingly plausible. The plot is solid and activity is presented in an alternating fashion to keep to a time line. Each character is necessary and is clearly portrayed. Spies are always interesting and have their own objectives and perspectives, with inherent danger being the common denominator. Extremely well-written, and not to be rushed through, but absorbed, assimilated, and enjoyed. See publisher's summary for plot clues without spoilers.
Pierce gives show more a stellar performance once again. No superficial attempt to approximate accents or vocal differentiation, just solid, clear renditions of a multitude of characters and narrations. I find the speed of delivery particularly appropriate to a novel with so much information and so many characters in that he does not rush through and leave the reader in the dust.
I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com show less

They are true soldiers of fortune. Twenty-five years ago they walked away from a war. Now they sit atop an empire…built on the blood of those they have betrayed.

Charles D. Taylor, bestselling author of BOOMER and SHADOW WARS delivers his most daring and dramatic suspense novel yet, as he unravels a web of greed, violence, and corruption stretching from the turmoil of Vietnam to the financial heart of Hong Kong to the top ranks of the Pentagon itself.

Two MIA sightings a world apart — one show more in the Laotian jungle, the other at Washington's Vietnam War Memorial — have led Navy SEAL Commander Matthew Stone, working for the Defense Intelligence Agency, to the threshold of a conspiracy a quarter of a century old. It began in the Iron Triangle of Vietnam — Bravo Company — where a few men struck a deal with a corrupt CIA operative and chose the drug trade as their ticket out of the war. And from the seed of the opium poppy they built a vast multinational conglomerate, its tendrils of power and influence extending across the Pacific Rim of Asia. For twenty-five years they have been listed as missing in action; now they're willing to kill to stay missing forever.

Commander Stone is compelled to action by his own sense of honor, and by the painful quest for truth of Leila Potter. Her brother, attached to Bravo Company, died in the Iron Triangle under mysterious circumstances. And neither she nor Stone will rest until the scattered clues are pieced together…and the missing brought to account. show less

Well it certainly had a plot - the most powerful vessel in the UN Navy, the Aegis-class destroyer, USS Gettysburg, is 'hijacked' by the Vietnamese Navy and interred in Russia's Pacific Fleet Base. Unlikely? Probably, but nevertheless a gripping novel of the Cold War era.

When a failed attempt by Russian 'moles' onboard are caught stealing the secrets of Aegis (a defense computer/system, which is real) a gun fight breaks out off the coast of Vietnam and the shipped is forced into enemy hands, show more which surprisingly has the Russians concerned, especially as a plane circles off the coast with a nuclear-armed missile to wipe out the base, ship, and it's crew should the system be compromised.

But one last-ditch effort is allowed by the SEALs led by a guy who is the best, as the book's characters would have you believe.

The book is a great read, and will be entertaining without needing an intimate knowledge of Cold War history nor naval terminology, although the more you are aware the more flowing the reading comes. And as ex-navy, I loved the whole cloak-and-dagger stuff of the Cold War, and the portrayed coldness of Russians.

But as is so often the case, the book failed in allowing a love story to take place. Why? It had no relevance and just dragged out a painstaking ritual of American authors to have some moral/romantic aspect thrown in...can't make sense of it.

This aside, I would recommend the book as a bedside table read and while the ending seemed to be played out in double-quick time and leaving you somewhat anti-climatic (was the author required to finish within a number of pages?) it would be one of the better novels I have read on the era/subject, let's just hope it isn't turned into a movie with Steven Seagal starring in it (ala Under Siege). show less

2.8