A cold war related crime, submarines at defcom one, suspicious deaths, a good set of characters and a promising plot.
This extract opens within a 1980’s nuclear submersible, a core character Lieutenant Bill is on task, assisting the Captain to begin a nuclear strike, the orders are suspect and the Bill and his mate Lars intervene, which is lucky as the order was an error. Years later we are introduced to Bills family and a historian Sam who is investigating the cover up for his next book.
The pace is good, the details well researched, I felt like I was within that vessel beneath the waves. I liked the character development, particularly the contrast between young spunky Bill and old reserved Bill. His family members flowed nicely with individual characters. His daughters boyfriend was a bit boring but i liked the historian Sam, his warm brummy charm extracting Bills secrets.
The suspense has built really well, glad there were no deaths at this point, which would have blunted the katana’s edge. But why was the nuclear launch message sent? incompetence? a lone psychopath? a hard core group of radicals with the security clearance to create the end of existence? The answer will make or break this book.
The author found a good balance, if the rest of this book continues in this vein then it has to be Defcon 1-2 (4-5 stars).
This extract opens within a 1980’s nuclear submersible, a core character Lieutenant Bill is on task, assisting the Captain to begin a nuclear strike, the orders are suspect and the Bill and his mate Lars intervene, which is lucky as the order was an error. Years later we are introduced to Bills family and a historian Sam who is investigating the cover up for his next book.
The pace is good, the details well researched, I felt like I was within that vessel beneath the waves. I liked the character development, particularly the contrast between young spunky Bill and old reserved Bill. His family members flowed nicely with individual characters. His daughters boyfriend was a bit boring but i liked the historian Sam, his warm brummy charm extracting Bills secrets.
The suspense has built really well, glad there were no deaths at this point, which would have blunted the katana’s edge. But why was the nuclear launch message sent? incompetence? a lone psychopath? a hard core group of radicals with the security clearance to create the end of existence? The answer will make or break this book.
The author found a good balance, if the rest of this book continues in this vein then it has to be Defcon 1-2 (4-5 stars).