Red Metal by Mark Greaney and H. Ripley Rawling

About 3 years ago – A platoon is overrun in Afghanistan. Heavy losses, but. Lt Col Dan Connolly’s charges are bailed out by a Warthog. He is realizing that being on patrol is a young man’s game.

About 3 years ago – The Russians are on the verge of taking control of a rare earth metals mine in Kenya. At the last minute, Moscow says withdraw. The commander, Colonel Yuri Borbikov, doesn’t agree, but complies. He perceives this as more of a personal failure and less a political decision. For the next three years, he devises a plan to retake what he feels rightfully belongs to Russia. He just needs the right circumstances.

Current day. The China-Taiwan thing continues to rankle Beijing. Elections are coming up in Taiwan and a hard-line candidate who is pro reconciliation is assassinated by Chinese commandoes in a raid set up to look like opposition extremists within Taiwan pulled the trigger. They want war so they can take the island by force. The Western Pacific goes on alert and the President sends an enormous naval presence to the area in an attempt to deter China who has said that an invasion is imminent depending on the outcome of the upcoming elections.

This may be just what Borbikov needs. Distraction. He has managed to get the ear of a couple higher ups who in turn sell the plan to the Russian President. The plan calls for a rapid strike on two fronts while the US is distracted in the Pacific. One strike is directed at NATO, specifically its AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart while the other is a Russian force headed for the Mrima Hill mine in Kenya. If the Russians can take out AFRICOM and focus the remaining US forces on Europe, the Kenyan strike should be met with minimal  resistance.

What follows is a HUGE story beginning with Russia’s plans, miscalculations by NATO and the Pentagon, and the integration of multiple information sources by two Pentagon analysts. The battles that are largely mechanized armor battles (tanks and other such vehicless) and mostly told from the viewpoints of  Lt Col Connolly (who, normally at his cushy Pentagon job, gets pulled out and plopped in Africa to help oversee that front. Cuz he put it all together), a US commander of a tank company in Europe, an A-10 Warthog pilot, a Polish partisan in the regional civilian guard (whose main goal was to become the manager of the coffee shop she works at), the two Russian generals in charge of each front (the  experienced Boris Lazar in Africa and the arrogant Eduard Sabaneyev in Europe), Colonel Castor, the Marine commander in Africa (charged with getting to the mine first and holding the ground until a re-tasked carrier group can arrive with help), and one bad-ass driver of a Virginia class sub off the eastern coast of Africa. Europe explodes on Christmas morning and this whole mess moves along at light speed for the next week.

Greaney is an established political/spy thriller writer who has joined up with Rawlings, a retired Marine Colonel. I’ve read my share of combat-based novels and the only ones that really ring true have been written by those who’ve been there. It’s obvious that Rawlings is that man. The battle plans. The execution. The counters. The hardware. The casualties and destruction. Other books without the intimate knowledge that goes far beyond literary research just don’t match up. The book is filled with that alphabet soup of acronyms and initialism of weaponry and combat. Greaney did some work with Clancy and it shows as this is on a par with other really big stories by Clancy. Did you like Red Storm Rising? You’ll like this (>600 page) beast.

Together they have put together what could potentially be WWIII. And over what? A strip mine. Make that the world’s largest mine of rare elements that just happen to be critical for hi-tech development. Whoever controls the mine will control that most important sector of the world’s economy as well as future military R&D. Whoever controls that hole in the ground will dictate the future.

Expected publication date is July 16, 2019. Place your orders. This one could be big.

ECD

She's so Cold

She’s so Cold by Donald E. McInnis is nonfiction work about one of the more famous murder cases in San Diego County. The murder of 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe occurred in January 1998, in Escondido, California. Initially, the police focused on the murder having been committed by Michael, Stephanie’s 14-year-old brother, along with two of Michael’s friends, Joshua Treadway and Aaron Houser. Mr. McInnis was the defense lawyer for Aaron.

In one sense, this was a terrible book. For the sake of accuracy, the author relied on court transcripts and other recorded materials to present his facts. Personally, I find the reading of court transcripts and depositions to be incredibly tedious. I’ve provided expert opinions in nearly 2,000 cases (nearly all of it having been outside the criminal arena) and I’ve been deposed approximately 500 times. Proofreading my own depositions has got to be the worst and most boring part of this. But, that’s beside the point. It was just hard to read through all of the transcripts.

This Crowe murder case was a mess from the outset. The author clearly proves that the Escondido Police Department mistreated the boys in the course of extracting two probably false confessions from them. “Mistreatment” is probably an understatement regarding the way the boys were treated. I don’t disagree with the author that the police interrogation techniques were the equivalent of “psychological torture.” The boys were kept from their parents, not Mirandized until much later, and they were denied food, water, and sleep until their initial interrogations were completed. It is outrageous that such behavior still occurs in our legal system. Not only were the boys eventually exonerated, but also the City of Escondido had to pay out $11,250,000 for the violation of the boys’ civil rights. McInnis makes their mistreatment very clear. It was 14 years after Stephanie’s death in 2012 that the San Diego Superior Court ruled that the three boys were factually innocent of the charges against them.

Subsequently to the boys’ trials, 28-year-old Richard Tuite, a transient who may have been schizophrenic, was arrested and convicted of voluntary manslaughter. McInnis presented the evidence against Tuite. That three-month Tuite trial took place in 2004, so the Crowe case once again dominated the local news. However, in 2011, the 9^th Circuit Court opined that Tuite was entitled to a new trial, and on 12/6/13, Mr. Tuite was found not guilty of the murder of Stephanie Crowe. Then 44 years old, after spending about 15 years in custody, Mr. Tuite was allowed to freely walk away from prison. So the Crowe case was never solved.

As a further connection to the ongoing importance of this case, when the current County DA Bonnie Dumanis resigned from her post in 2017, the appointed interim DA was Summer Stephan who had lost the Crowe trial against the boys. Ms. Summer was then elected to a four-year term as the San Diego County DA. So, in real life, all court matters are not as neat and tidy as what we see in the mystery books we often read.

Six Minutes Late by Patrick Parker

On the surface, the NASA weather facility in Panama looks harmless enough, if you discount the heavier than probably necessary force of locals on guard. A couple of the locals have been turned by Bart Madison, a former spec ops soldier who has gone rogue and now hires himself out to the highest bidder. Right now, ISIS has the deepest pockets.

What is really housed down there are four man-portable nukes. Madison recruits elements of various cartels to enter the facility, steal the four nukes, and transport them out. Two take a circuitous route to the coast for transit to the Middle East. The other two are destined for the US. If they can get across the border.

The presence of the nukes in Panama is a sore topic for the current appeaser-in-chief in the White House. When he learns of the theft, he makes every attempt to keep it quiet. Any attempt at getting the nukes has to be entirely off the books. If they get returned, no one must know anything. Nothing. No press, no awards, no commendations. Nothing.

The SoCom command overseas Panama. To lead the hunt for the stolen nukes, the recently retired Max Kenworth is put on point along with Gail Summers (FBI) and Danya Mayer (Mossad). Their job is to find out what happened at the NASA facility, where the nukes have gone, get them back and avoid any detonation, and find out who is responsible. SoCom has pledged every possible resource (fully off the books) to accomplish their task.

The chase begins in the Panamanian jungle to Colombia, to an Atlantic freighter transported two nukes to ISIS. The chase also heads up Central America where a number of false flags show up at border crossings allowing the other two nukes to cross, headed for unknown destinations. Homeland Security is convinced the bombs are headed for NYC and has convinced the President. Max, Gail, and Danya think otherwise and track a possibility in the western US where a detonation might not lead to a massive loss of life, but surely would devastate all aspects fo the SW US economy.

Parker lays out every American’s worst nightmare. A turncoat who knows the inner workings of the US security forces, works for ISIS, captures a nuclear weapon, and plans on a homeland detonation. Elements of the theft, the chase, and the confrontations have an air of authenticity that should send shivers down the spine of most readers. This could easily be a 1-sitting read or, if you read at night, keep you up far later than planned.

If I had to quibble, there are a couple character development points with some holes. For one, there's only a taste of what caused Bart to go over to the dark side; would've liked more. Apparently, Max and Bart have a history, but the details are not fleshed out that much. Looks like Max and Danya also have a history, but I guess I missed it. Not to mention that the team shuttles between DC, Panama, various military installations, US-MEX border crossings, Las Vegas, and LA area at NCC-1701 transporter speeds. But, as Johnny Carson used to say (when a comedy piece was dying), “Buy the premise, buy the bit.” For most, I suspect that those details won’t detract from this high-stakes cat and mouse game played by Bart and Max. As Samuel L. Jackson said in Jurassic Park: ‘Hold on to your butts.”

Parker is retired Army with 15 more years in the Defense industry. Helps keep the plot authentic. He has two earlier thrillers and all three are self published, so your hard earned $$ go to him and him alone.

ECD

Breach

Breach (An Analog Novel Book 3) is my ninth Eliot Peper book. Can you tell that I love his writing? This might be his best novel yet which means he has already passed a very high standard of near-future science fiction writing. This is the third novel in the Analog series. His protagonist is Emily Kim who we met in the first Analog novel, Bandwidth. This novel opens 13 years since the end of the second book in the series, Borderless. Emily has totally disappeared from Commonwealth, the company which controls the feed - the source of all knowledge and so much more. She is about to reappear in this new story. I strongly you to read the novels in order so that you’ll benefit from the character development. 

Normally, I’m not a sci-fi guy, but this story forces the reader to consider the pros and cons of our developing technology. I think this series is an appeal to industry leaders like Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos to consider possible outcomes of unregulated technical advances. Emily Kim is one of the most compelling fiction characters that I’ve ever encountered. The plot is gripping, and the good guys and bad guys are all real and believable. It’s a quick and exciting read, but start with Bandwidth.

Budapest Noir by Vilmos Kondor

1936. The Hungarian prime minister, Gyula Gombos, has just died. Almost the entire newspaper industry, police, and military are gearing up for the funeral and all the organizational details that will go in to honoring a beloved leader.

That includes Zsigmond Gordon. Crime reporter for The Evening, a leading newspaper in Budapest. He’s no fan of politics. Particularly now, considering what’s brewing the neighboring Italy and Germany. While he, too, has been assigned to cover various aspects of the funeral, the death of a young prostitute is more concerning on a number of levels. 

For one, in all likelihood, her death could be lost amongst all the goings on surrounding the funeral. Second, the girl is a teenager. Third, she died without a mark on her. Fourth, when asking around at the police department, he snuck a peak into a police captain’s drawer and found a professionally made naked photo of the girl. Fifth, she was Jewish. And finally, his contact at the coroner’s office tells Gordon that the girl was pregnant.

Juggling his funeral assignments with sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, Gordon personal private investigation goes from the cop who found the body, to the police higher-ups whose lack of interest goes beyond the simple bad timing what with the funeral and all, to the photographer, to the girl’s pimp, to the brothel with which she was connected, to getting severely beaten by this strange man tracking him, to the brothel’s madam - the legendary Red Margo. All of which was just to find an identity.

Doing a little digging on my own, I learned that the book was originally published in Hungarian in 2008 and translated in this 2012 edition. Also learned that author’s name is a pseudonym and that this book was made into a 2017 movie by a Hungarian film company (to mostly mediocre reviews). But the one common feature of reviews of both the book and the movie is that hard boiled noir fans will probably find things to like about either the book or the movie. My best comparison is to maybe Raymond Chandler as it seems to pay homage to that golden era of noir. Not a bad think to be linked to.

ECD

Off the Grid

Off the Grid is the first Robert McCaw novel reviewed in the blog, and its the author's second thriller with the protagonist, Chief Detective Koa Kane whose beat is Hawaii, the big island. Kane has risen from poverty on the island where his father had labored in the sugar cane fields, only to be killed when he was pushed into a giant grinding machine. Kane escaped by joining the military, and then he retired to the local police force where he worked his way up to chief detective. But, all was not well in paradise. Kane discovered a body that had been tortured before being cast into the active lava field where the expectation was that his body would be burned to a cinder and never discovered. It was the second homicide on the same day, the first of a woman, a reclusive and unsuccessful artist. It turns out the two murdered people were linked. They were mysterious fugitives, but suddenly, Koa’s investigation was hampered by the CIA, the DIA, the Chinese, and his own police chief. As Koa went about his business as a detective, he reveled in his love for Nalani, a beautiful and gracious native Hawaiian who was working as a ranger and naturalist at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and Koa revealed his own dark secrets.

This book checks all the boxes – a great venue in Hawaii’s back country which is artistically described, a strong protagonist in Koa Kane, a troubling crime that begs to be uncovered, obstacles to solving the case, bad police supervisors, and a love story. The plot is well told and the character development is excellent. This one gets my strong recommendation.

The Public Good by Crista McHugh

About 10 yrs ago: An unlikely trio form a lifelong bond while students at George Washington University in DC. Catherine: the white gentile southern lass. Alondra: a brassy Latina from Brooklyn. Derrick: African-American special forces veteran. The Three Musketeers they call themselves. 

Catherine's passion is medicine and headed off to UNC School of Medicine. Alondra wants to be a journalist, if she can keep her opinions in check and just report the news. Derrick goes to law school with ambitions of public service. Alondra and Derrick had become quite an item, but she broke it off because she knew that her penchant for muckraking and her reactionary temper wouldn't be the proper companion for a man who just might end up in Congress.

Life goes as expected except for Alondra. Gets her newspaper job. Her looks and heritage get her noticed by network TV. She gets a gig as the morning anchor on a DC-based network with no interest in her opinions and forces her to just be a newsreader. When reading a story that the network has blatantly slanted away from the truth, she erupts on air. Bye bye TV job. She now works for an upcoming online news group, still in DC.

Today: Alondra is trying to get some confirmations of details of a new health care bill that will provide free meds for a variety of chronic conditions. She tries to get something, anything, from Senator Howell of Alabama who sits on the committee writing the bill. His pompous, arrogant attitude toward Alondra doesn't sit well, but it comes with the territory of Capitol Hill. After being brushed off, Alondra turns and runs into the newly elected congressman from NY.

Derrick Battle. Her ex.


Catherine is doing an OB/GYN residency in Chapel Hill where the residents have to do some work in a rural free clinic. She comes across an unusually large number of women with premature ovarian failure. Women in the 20's effectively becoming postmenopausal; sterile. She asks some of her former classmates in other residencies to send her details of their cases, accumulating a substantial case series. She notices two commonalities. First, all the women had taken a new contraceptive, Ovucontra from Rock Pharmaceuticals. Single shot. Once a year. 100% effective. Second, those afflicted were all women of color. She looks into the drug and the company and starts asking more questions. Questions that reach Rock Pharmaceuticals. She's spooked by what she has learned, contacts Alondra and they agree to meet over the upcoming weekend. Friday afternoon, Catherine's mother calls. Catherine was killed on Thursday night in a bungled robbery.

After Catherine's funeral, Alondra receives a thumb drive in the mail. From Catherine. Contains all her notes about what she'd found. Names of people involved in the drug's development, doctors overseeing the clinical trials. And her own developing case series of patients. Alondra wants to follow-up and not let Catherine's fears die with her. Alondra calls Rock's Director of R/D. Dead 2 months ago. Traffic accident. She calls the doctor who ran the Miami clinical trial. Drowned a few weeks ago. She sets up a Skype call with the Kenyan doctor who ran the African clinical trial site. He's also spooked. Too many women with premature ovarian failure. He won't use it. Starts to send her his notes when he's killed right in front of her eyes.

From here, it's a race to a truth that Alondra will not let go. She needs an insider. She needs internal Rock communications. She needs to get a sample of the drug. Rock Pharma stands to make billions because it's the only name-brand drug included in the new healthcare bill. But it goes farther and deeper than just money. She needs to connect the dots before she, too, ends up dead.

Got this via Netgalley. The short description sounded interesting. A dogged journalist, a medical mystery, a political thriller. Checks most of my boxes. After reading, I looked up Crista McHugh, a NYT bestselling author. Her genres are romance (contemporary, historical, paranormal), young adult, and fantasy. Not the kind of author generally reviewed the MRB boys.

But let me tell you, boys and girls. This book crackled with a level of authenticity that is usually associated with insider knowledge. You know, a book that might've been written by a former Big Pharma employee, an MD, or a former congressional staffer. Those sorts. You'd never know McHugh is a romance novelist. I was welded to my seat reading this. And when my Kindle wasn't in my hands, I was looking for reasons to stop what I was doing in order to get back to it. I was left stunned. Obviously, McHugh knows how to write. But a medical/political/journalist thriller? Who knew. Could've easily read this in one sitting.

Pick this one up. Anyone who likes thrillers based on investigative reporting, medicine, or politics will find this one right up their alley.

Available  May 29, 2019

ECD

p.s. Only one thing that didn't fully ring true to me. From what I've seen, Big Pharma is, for the most part, out of the R/D business. They let independent startups do the basic research on new molecules - the expensive part of the process. When they find a new molecule or product that looks promising, they just buy out the company. Cheaper in the long run.  But that's an incredibly minor quibble that doesn't detract from this terrific story.