Rigged - Book One of the Falling Empires Series by James Rosone & Miranda Watson

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Rigged, Book One of the Falling Empire Series is a fast-moving thriller that takes a look at a future where several world powers and the UN form a secret alliance to rig a presidential election in the United States. Their goal is to have a candidate of their own choosing elected, perhaps even to control. Authors James Rosone and Miranda Watson spin a frightening plot that is likely something about which several nations might actually wish they could do.  While the security services of the U.S. do a good job at catching and stopping several terrorist activities, they fail to see the big picture, and the nefarious larger goal seems unstoppable. The authors have given us a lot to think about and have done so in a book that I believe many will find enjoyable.

Review by Bob Doerr (April 2020)

Author's Synopsis

Who has real power?

The people in the shadows…
…behind the presidents of the world.
Cloaked in secrecy and loyal to their leaders, the masters of manipulation play at an entirely different level. They pull the strings and sow the seeds of division. What is their plan?
An election approaches.

The new US president will change the direction of the country. The world watches as the contenders for the White House state their cases.

Will this point in history alter the course of mankind?

The hidden plot must be discovered. The upheaval of a divided nation could bring it down. Will our heroes put the pieces together in time? Or have too many dominoes already fallen to stop this devious trap?

You’ll love this “torn from the headlines” modern day thriller because it rings true.

Get it now.

ISBN/ASIN: B07NSHGYWT
Book Format(s): Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 553

Battle of the Bulge: Brothers Behind Enemy Lines by Suzanne Agnes

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Suzanne Agnes’s The Battle of the Bulge: Brothers Behind Enemy Lines is one of the most unique tales of World War II that I have ever read. In a war involving millions of combatants and almost the entirety of Europe, how do two brothers in two different units meet up on a road in the middle of Germany?

The story is told through the words of George Zak, who was only nineteen years old when he was captured at the beginning of the famous Battle of the Bulge. He recounts his upbringing and some family history to put his Bohemian heritage into focus. He was proud of his father’s service in World War I, and was willing to do his part in World War II, which found him in Europe near the end of the war. His capture began a harrowing journey back to freedom. His brother was also a soldier in Europe, in a different unit. How these two ended up meeting on the side of the road in Germany is one of the great coincidences of the war.

I particularly enjoyed how the author used her father’s (George’s) original words to tell most of the story. This made the story more personal. This isn’t a combat memoir, but instead one person’s small view of a huge part of the end of the war, and his struggles to stay positive amid capture. The reunion with his brother is the icing on the cake of a very human story.

Those who enjoy reading unique stories about coincidences of warfare will love this story, as will those who enjoy studying the Battle of the Bulge.

Review by Rob Ballister (March 2020)

---

Author's Synopsis

In 1944, George Zak, a 19-year-old U.S. Army private first class, was captured on the front line during the Battle of the Bulge, the largest and one of the deadliest battles of World War II in Europe. Forced to work as a slave laborer, George subsequently escaped from two prisoner-of-war camps.

Meanwhile, inside American-held territory, George's brother, Robert, a U.S. Army radioman, was determined to find where George might be held prisoner. Robert took his jeep and led his own personal rescue mission into enemy territory.

From the streets of a Bohemian enclave of Chicago to the forests of central Europe, these two brothers ventured to find each other. This is their story--and the story of a fast-fading generation of brave Americans who became accidental heroes in terror and under fire.

ISBN/ASIN: ISBN-10: 0938075993, ISBN-13: 978-0938075998
Book Format(s): Soft cover
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 156

Imminent Threat by Steve Doherty

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Steve Doherty’s Imminent Threat is an exciting military thriller, with action and technology reminiscent of Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler. It is the fourth Jonathan Preston novel in the series, which follows the exploits of a US intelligence team during and after World War II.

As the war ends, Jonathan Preston and his team of intelligence operatives learn of a rogue submarine mission launched by Japan right before the nation surrendered. Two advanced submarines are crossing the ocean to launch biological warfare on the United States, potentially killing millions after the war is already over. Preston and his team of professionals must use all their skills and call in many favors to try and stop the devastation, but will they be in time?

I was impressed with the existing World War II technology the author built upon to make this story. The two rogue submarines on the mission are explained in detail and are certainly believable. The author also does an excellent job of explaining the intelligence and counterintelligence networks necessary to make this story work.  The result is an entertaining spy/military adventure that fans of the genre will enjoy.

Fans of techno-thrillers, spy novels, and World War II should find this enjoyable.

Review by Rob Ballister (April 2020)

---

Author's Synopsis

Steve Doherty is a retired United States Air Force officer and business owner. He grew up in the small community of Muldoon, Texas. He obtained an undergraduate degree from Texas State University, a master’s degree from Chapman University and completed post-graduate work at The Ohio State University. While in the Air Force Steve flew the T-29C, KC-135A, and T-43A aircraft. He currently lives in New Albany, Ohio.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1-64085-560-1; 978-1-64085-561-8; 978-1-64085-562-5
Book Format(s): Hard cover, Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 311

The Big Buddha Bicycle Race by Terence Harkin

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

It's 1970, years before the Vietnam War would actually end, and Brendan Leary has a problem. He wants to live in California and go to film grad school, but he's snagged by the draft. Because he has a film background, the Air Force puts him in a combat film unit not in Vietnam, but in Thailand. That location and the comparatively benign Air Force assignment seem like they'd be an easy gig. But things quickly go downhill from there in Vietnam veteran Terence A. Harkin's The Big Buddha Bicycle Race.

Leary quickly gets used to the laid-back Thai vibe, in large measure because film pals from his former stateside unit have also been assigned to the Thailand photo unit due to their vindictive first sergeant. They face terror when riding out in AC-130 Spectre gunships to film attacks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and face social challenges decompressing in the Thai bars. Growing recreational drug use doesn't deflect the eventual horrors of the shooting war that are visited upon them in their combat backwater.

The titular Big Buddha Bicycle Race was devised as an inter-squadron competition to raise bags of cash for Leary and his co-conspirators, but by the end of the novel the bike race has devolved into a bloody ambush that kills friends and foes, American airmen, and Thai civilians alike. It's how Leary and his friends live their lives along the way that brings home much of the tragedy that bleeds at the end.

This work is a brilliant companion to the most iconic depictions of life in a war zone, including Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Robert Altman's film M*A*S*H, and Barry Levinson's Good Morning, Vietnam. It depicts the sharply drawn characters, daily work drudgery, combat tragedies, political posturing, and the social upheaval of Americans in Southeast Asia in the heady days before the fall.

The Big Buddha Bicycle Race is smart, detailed, compelling, and occasionally heart-rending, and would make a completely legitimate entry in the canon as a movie.

Review by Daniel Charles Ross (April 2020) 

---

Author's Synopsis

It’s all working according to plan.  The draft might be keeping me, Brendan  Leary, from going to film school, but I’m getting to ride out the Vietnam War making training films in sunny California with pals like Tom Wheeler, a laid-back pothead, and hipster production officers like Lieutenant Moonbeam Liscomb, a charismatic Air Force Academy boxing champ turned vegetarian Zen Buddhist.  When Wheeler and I impulsively join local coeds protesting Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia, First Sergeant Link summarily ships us off to the Rat Pack, a photo outfit stuck at obscure Ubon Air Base on the Thai-Laotian frontier. Danielle, an artist I met at a candlelight peace march, promises to wait for me even though she’s already lost a husband in Vietnam.   

Too quickly, I adapt to an air-conditioned editorial trailer and nights off base filled with drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and a growing interest in an exotic masseuse named Tukadah.  Playing drums in a blues band with a Spectre door gunner named Harley Baker, I fiddle while Laos burns and my commitment to Danielle begins to dim. Ubon might be in the middle of an air war that rages all over Southeast Asia, but my motley mates are determined to keep our heads down—until Liscomb, now a radical black nationalist, shows up and talks us into one more peace march.  

Moonbeam is arrested and I am reassigned—thanks again to Sergeant Link.  The Rat Pack needs cameramen: Liscomb and I are soon flying nightmarish nighttime combat over the Ho Chi Minh Trail with hard-nosed Baker flying along as my guardian angel.  When it’s rumored that Nixon and Kissinger are headed for China to meet Chairman Mao, we figure the war must be winding down. I dream up a bicycle race to the Big Buddha monastery as a wholesome distraction for Ubon’s airmen—and a way for me and my buddies to make a quick buck.  We get the brass on board by promising ambitious officers a last chance to put some feathers in their caps before a screwed-up war grinds to a halt. At Big Buddha I’m surprised to learn that two Americans—a former Peace Corps volunteer and an ex-USAF forward air control pilot—now live as monks at a wat on the other side of Ubon.

The band breaks up and I begin teaching night school to a class that includes the demure Miss Pawnsiri and Tukadah’s half-brother, Sergeant Prasert.  Discovering Tukadah is engaged to one airman, married to another stationed in Korea, and nursing a heroin habit doesn’t deter me from figuring I’m the guy who can straighten her out.  When Tukadah’s husband flees with her young daughter, however, she’s devastated and disappears. I try to commiserate with her brother, buying him a drink at a club filled with GIs and Thai bar girls.  Prasert disappears, and my old friend Wheeler insists the sergeant is part of the terrorist group that tried to assassinate the governor of Ubon province.  

I blame Wheeler’s paranoia on too much ganja.  With the race snowballing, Liscomb and I are made lead cameramen on the official documentary, an assignment that reminds us why we love making movies.  The start of the Big Buddha Bicycle Race is glorious—a thousand entrants from every unit on the base mean tens of thousands of dollars for the Syndicate.  Across the river, Tukadah has nearly OD’d while spending the night at Papa-sahn’s opium den. She survives, dragging herself away to find me and stop her brother, but she‘s too late.  The race ends in a bloody ambush led by Prasert, catching me and Tukadah in a crossfire. Liscomb, who has been filming from a Jolly Green, braves a hail of bullets to rescue us, only to have Tukadah die in my arms.  Lying in my hospital bed, I can hear Baker’s unit taking off, plane after plane. One of their gunners has been killed and he will be avenged.

ISBN/ASIN: Paperback 978-0-8040-1200-3, Hardcover 978-0-8040-1199-0, Electronic 978-0-8040-4090-7
Book Format(s): Hard cover, Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Fiction—Literary Fiction
Number of Pages: 400

render by W. Joseph O'Connell

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

The story of war is not new. The story of PTSD is not new. In this story, it is the treatment that is new.

The first three quarters of the story enfolds around Iraq and the tanker unit whose mission it is to sniff out IEDs. The language is crisp, full of military detail about the dry, dusty life in a foreign land full of insurgents trying to destroy American forces. The primary setting involves the blasting heat of the desert and cramped tent camps, with forays into enemy territory where some of the locals are friendlies. In the fourth quarter of the story, we see what happens to those who survived and went back home. The language shifts into a beautiful prose that allows us to see more of the internal workings of the characters. The setting moves into a lush scenario of rivers, trees, farms, and stimulating cityscapes. Here, we begin to experience PTSD with bits of hope strewn in.

The title of the story is render. The definition of render is to provide or give a service or to cause to be or become. This becomes meaningful when the story is finished. When finished with the book, it might seem to be another PTSD story. But the story lingers and haunts us. Questions come up. Why is the story titled render? Why were our soldiers in Iraq? What kind of person becomes a soldier? Who are the bad guys? How does one get PTSD? Slowly we see how the story is about how the military, or a country, can ask a person to give a service and then, render that person into something different. Then, we aren’t sure any more what is right and wrong. The story does not feature the happy ending we want, but an ending we come to understand.
The characters are described more than developed. We don’t get to deeply know the characters while they are in Iraq. We only get to know them as their character relates to the military. We learn a little more when the characters return home. We can never truly say we know the characters, but in accordance with the theme of render, we understand how they came to be. It’s an enduring and universal story that I will remember for a long time.

Review by Gail Summers (June 2020)

---

Author's Synopsis

 The Surge ramped up as summer crawled along, one grueling day at a time. Criminal activity remained high in Baghdad despite efforts by American commanders to provide steadfast coverage over their assigned areas. IED attacks had become the enemy’s standard procedure in the aftermath of the catastrophic hit against Baja Company. Day by day, junior officers received their orders, briefed their soldiers, and embarked on mounted and dismounted patrols in search of the enemy. Daytime temperatures soared, and the Americans became entrenched in a battle of wills against their adversaries as well as the unrelenting heat. With an IED seemingly on every street in Baghdad, it's a battle of attrition between the Army and an invisible enemy as they both vie for control of Iraq's capital city.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1657295674, 1657295672
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Literary Fiction
Number of Pages: 208

Going Home by Carole Brungar

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

It was 1967, and the war in Vietnam was heating up. Joe was an American Army lieutenant, trained to fly the helicopters known as Hueys. This was his second tour of duty in Vietnam, and he was enjoying the experience. Some flights were simply supply runs, but others brought an adrenalin rush as the chopper entered a war zone, ducked through the tracers to land at the site of a crash, and lifted the wounded to safety. Flying was what Joe did best, and he knew that what he did was often a matter of life and death.

Ronnie was a nurse from New Zealand, somewhat disillusioned by the mundane chores of emptying bedpans and spooning soup that marked her hours on duty at her local hospital. She was disappointed and embarrassed after discovering her rather ordinary boyfriend was also a cheater. She needed a change of scenery, and the chance to work in a Vietnamese hospital treating the civilian casualties of war seemed a more worthy use of her time. Ronnie volunteered for a year’s tour and headed off to Vietnam, determined to throw herself into work that would allow her to use all her medical training.

Neither Joe nor Ronnie had any interest in finding love in Vietnam. Their lives were full enough as they made new friends and adapted to the intense heat and culture shock of a strange country. They both enjoyed the regular “Hail and Farewell” parties that celebrated their colleagues who were moving into or out of their assignments. Evenings in a club-like atmosphere might lead to a heartfelt conversation, a slow dance, or a gentle kiss, but no one expected more than that. A war zone was no place for a romance. No one wanted it. No one expected it. They lived a day at a time, dealing with traumatic experiences at every turn. They knew that tomorrow was never promised, and they were content with that.

The story of Joe and Ronnie unfolds gradually, like the slow upward crawl at the beginning of a rollercoaster ride. The view from the top is lovely; their friendship blossoms. And then they plunge into a headlong crisis, a twisting, terror-filled series of events that change their lives forever. The conclusion will leave many readers in tears but wanting more.

Review by Carolyn Schriber (May 2020)

---

Author's Synopsis

You don’t choose a time and place to fall in love. Fate always chooses for you.

When Ronnie McIlroy volunteers to spend twelve months nursing in a South Vietnamese hospital, she’s ill-prepared for a poverty-stricken country at war. Neither weak nor faint-hearted, she’s way out of her comfort zone.

American pilot, Joseph Hunter Jr, is on his second tour of duty. With an outstanding flying record and a cool head, he’ll take an Iroquois anywhere he’s needed. When he meets an attractive young New Zealand nurse at the officer’s club, he knows the odds are stacked against a relationship.

With the war between the North and South escalating, hundreds of lives are being lost every day. As Ronnie and Joe navigate the constant dangers of living and working in a war zone, it’s clear fate has decided their time and place to fall in love is now. 

But will one naïve act of compassion destroy any chance of a life together? Will either of them leave Vietnam alive?

From the author of The Nam Legacy and The Nam Shadow, Going Home takes us back to the sixties, to a propaganda fuelled war, a determined enemy and a fragile hope for survival. 

Going Home is Ronnie's story.

ISBN: 9780473503932
ASIN: B082WVYHST
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 370

Angie's War by Gary DeRigne

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Even as our world changes, so many things stay the same. Today’s soldiers from the Iraq and Afghan wars are dealing with the same struggles as those who made it back from Vietnam. Post-traumatic stress, nightmares, and relationship troubles plague both generations. And the effects reach beyond the foreign battlefields.

Angie is unfortunate to have to wait on her son’s return from Afghanistan as she did so many years ago on her husband’s return from Vietnam. The endless waiting—desperate for, but also fearful of, information about loved ones serving their country.

Told from various points of view, the descriptions are vivid enough to make those who have not seen combat grateful to those who have fought for our freedom. For those who have struggled with these same situations, Gary DeRigne lets you know you aren’t alone. Writing as a combat veteran, DeRigne tells the story so many try to avoid—war has a price. Through power imagery and poignant characterization, Angie’s War paints the all-too-familiar picture of a nation locked in violent combat, and how it affects the individual at home and abroad.

Veterans find solace in reconnecting and talking with others who have been through what they have experienced. A different war but similar experiences draw these soldiers together to find community and, eventually, healing.

Review by Dawn Brotherton (March 2020)

---

Author's Synopsis

Angie's War is the story of Mick Delaney, a young American soldier fighting in Vietnam, his best friend Tony Giles, who fights alongside him, and Tony's wife Angie, who waits and worries at home through his year-long deployment. One day Tony receives a letter from Angie that distracts him from the razor-sharp concentration he needs to do his job as an infantry point man...  and the world is changed for the three of them, and everyone they touch, forever.

In Angie's War, author Gary DeRigne tells a gripping tale of love and loss, fear and courage, desperation and hope, that begins in the jungles of Vietnam and extends through the battlefields of Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq.  All the while, through generation after generation, loved ones at home wait, and worry, and pray, in an America that has become callous to the human cost of war.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1-947309-78-4, B07SYBSV81
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 383

The Road to Publishing by Dawn Brotherton

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

A spare little tome, A Guide to Publishing is nonetheless a reliable and useful tool for authors first striking out down the road of trying to get a book published. It doesn't supply a step-by-step format or specific worksheets to either self-publishing or traditional publishing, but it is a helpful book to scour to understand the overall process and how one might decide on a path to follow. There are some valuable individual hints (such as how to search out agents that might be appropriate for you to pitch), and the book is written in a friendly, breezy style that is easy to digest. It is certainly packed with more than enough really good material to get an author started with the "What do I do next?" quandary once a book manuscript is completed. The author also points to some excellent specific resources and organizations that can be valuable to a novice author. If I were looking for this sort of guidance it is definitely a book I would want to read first.

Review by Phil Keith (March 2020)

---

Author's Synopsis

It’s a long, twisting road to publishing—don’t let anyone tell you differently. There’s no one path, and the results are as varied as the methods to get there. Before you make a decision affecting your life, you owe it to yourself to do some homework. The Road to Publishing describes options available to you from self- to traditional publishing, providing helpful hints along the way. Through exercises and thought-provoking questions, the path will become clearer. Grab your notebook and let’s get started.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1-939696-44-1 (paperback), 978-1-939696-45-8 (eBook)
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Nonfiction—How to/Business
Number of Pages: 150

The Obsession by Dawn Brotherton

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Someone is making calls in the dead of night to Jackie’s phone, but not speaking. Someone is writing her poems, with no signature. Someone is opening doors and moving objects around in the house while she is gone, but nothing stolen, and there’s no sign of a break-in. Dawn Brotherton’s The Obsession will keep you guessing the stalker’s identity, and your supposition will probably be wrong.

Jackie Austin’s life was going reasonably well. She finished up her missile training and was assigned her first duty station at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Her only regret was that her boyfriend was assigned elsewhere, and the long-distance romance was not working out. Against her domineering father’s wishes, she purchased her first house—one hundred years old, with repairs to match its age. Between the renovation projects and her job as a missile officer, she does not need this additional stress. Against this backdrop, there have been several violent murders across the state, and the local police departments have no clues in these cases.

Out of the blue, Jackie is given a one-year assignment to Osan Air Base in Korea as an A-10 squadron section commander. Considering all that had happened in Missouri, she welcomes the break. Life with fighter pilots proved to be an adventure with some rewarding outcomes.  

A follow-on assignment to Langley Air Force Base has her bumping into old acquaintances from Whiteman and making new friends.  Then the calls begin again.  Jackie knows she must confront the tormentor once and for all—if she can figure out who it is.

The Obsession is a fast-moving read with some rather interesting twists and turns.

Review by Sandi Cathcart (March 2020)

---

Author's Synopsis

When the phone calls began in the dead of the night, Jackie chalked them up to a prank caller. She'd had her share of harassment during Air Force missile training, but she had rolled with it. Now when she noticed changes around her house she hadn’t made and unsigned love letters began arriving, she knew she needed to worry. Was she paranoid, going crazy, or were the guys at work not getting the message that she wasn’t interested?

In the neighboring town of Sedalia, a more ominous situation was stirring. The unexplained death of yet another young, single woman had the police on alert. Same MO, different small town. It was only a matter of time before the killer found his next victim.

ISBN/ASIN: B004J8HTH6
ISBN: 978-1-939696-93-9 , 978-1-939696-33-5, 978-1-939696-15-1
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook, Audiobook
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 284

Force No One by Daniel Ross

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Daniel Charles Ross kicks off a brand new techno-thriller series with Force No One, Book 1 in the Storm Cell series, and he does it in style.

A Muslim agent from the Department of Homeland Security is mysteriously murdered, and FBI Agent Amber “Corvette” Watson and her Detroit Homicide task force partner, Detective Sgt. Tracey Lexcellent (love that name) are on the case.

At the same time, a disgraced Special Forces operator offers his services to rescue a Chinese general’s daughter, in exchange for help in retrieving 100 million dollars that the ex-Ranger may or may not have stashed in the desert. And just in case that wasn’t enough excitement, someone is planning upon blowing up the opening game of the World Series where the Detroit Tigers finally have home-field advantage.

Yeah, there’s a lot going on.

Ross does a masterful job of building likable heroes who blend patriotism with humor and are generally just badass. Those characters operate inside a story filled with plenty of military hardware and other cool toys. Start to finish, it was a great read that comes to a thrilling finish.

Fans of Jeff Edwards, Tom Clancy, or Dale Brown will gravitate towards Ross’s work, and will find it thoroughly enjoyable.

Review by Rob Ballister (April 2020)

---

Author's Synopsis

A homicide in Detroit usually doesn't raise many eyebrows, but a victim is found with a business card from a Department of Homeland Security enforcement cell no one's ever heard of. FBI Special Agent Amber "Corvette" Watson and Detroit Police homicide detective Sgt. Tracey Lexcellent catch the case.

With a disgraced U.S. Army Ranger who can forget nothing and a black-budget CIA team in tow, they must solve the murder before terrorists can parachute into open-air Comerica Park during the opening ceremonies of the World Series and kill thousands on live television.

People are going to die. Everyone hopes they are the bad guys.

ISBN/ASIN: B07HMGYY6Q
ISBN-10: 1521737959, ISBN-13: 978-1521737958
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 400

Echo in Ramadi - The Firsthand Story of U.S. Marines in Iraq's Deadliest City by Scott Huesing

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Ramadi is the capital of Al Anbar province in Iraq. In 2006 it was the location for some of the bitterest fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom as insurgents and Coalition Forces fought for control of the strategically important city. Into the middle of this cauldron of devastating urban warfare was thrust Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines led by then-Captain Scott A. Huesing.

Though well trained and leavened with a cadre of Iraq war veterans, the Echo Company Marines were still shocked by the ferocity of violence that greeted them during the height of the insurgency, something that never let up during the unit’s deployment.

Echo in Ramadi joins other books on the subject as an excellent account of the Battle of Ramadi. What sets it apart, and gives it a particularly gripping veracity, is that it’s a story of the unit told from the point of view of its commander. Huesing spares no detail, nor himself, in the telling of Echo Company’s effort to wrest neighborhoods from insurgent control. The result is a war with no quarter asked or given—one where, as he graphically details, rules of engagement are callously manipulated by the insurgents and turned into weapons against Coalition Forces.

Huesing’s narrative covers the gamut of Echo Company’s experience, from the bonding that began with training to the fellowship that grew stronger when the Marines went into battle. Huesing reveals the complexity of company command, from basic leadership to the stress of chaos of urban combat. The many interlocking layers of command responsibility are vividly recounted, no more so than when Huesing makes a satellite phone call from his command post to comfort the mother of a Marine under his command who had been wounded.

Huesing pulls no punches in revealing the physical and emotional cost of their deployment. The tally of the butcher’s bill paid by Echo Company did not end when they left Iraq, but continued after they returned to the States and later, after discharge. Along with the physical wounds were the psychological scars of post-traumatic stress that contributed to the suicides of some men from the company and to Huesing’s own brush with death in a single-vehicle automobile crash.

Echo in Ramadi is one of most powerful accounts of the Iraq war. Its page-turning narrative reveals the stark, gut-wrenching triumph and tragedy that is the human cost of war.

Review by Dwight Jon Zimmerman (May 2019)

---

 Author's Synopsis

"In war, destruction is everywhere. It eats everything around you. Sometimes it eats at you." —Major Scott Huesing, Echo Company Commander From the winter of 2006 through the spring of 2007, two-hundred-fifty Marines from Echo Company, Second Battalion, Fourth Marine Regiment fought daily in the dangerous, dense city streets of Ramadi, Iraq during the Multi-National Forces Surge ordered by President George W. Bush. The Marines' mission: to kill or capture anti-Iraqi forces. Their experience: like being in Hell. Now Major Scott A. Huesing, the commander who led Echo Company through Ramadi, takes readers back to the streets of Ramadi in a visceral, gripping portrayal of modern urban combat. Bound together by brotherhood, honor, and the horror they faced, Echo's Marines battled day-to-day on the frontline of a totally different kind of war, without rules, built on chaos. In Echo in Ramadi, Huesing brings these resilient, resolute young men to life and shows how the savagery of urban combat left indelible scars on their bodies, psyches, and souls. Like war classics, We Were Soldiers, The Yellow Birds, and Generation Kill, Echo in Ramadi is an unforgettable capsule of one company's experience of war that will leave readers stunned. About the Author Scott A. Huesing is a retired USMC Infantry Major with over 24 years of service, both enlisted and as a commissioned officer. His career spanned 10 deployments and he conducted operations in over 60 countries worldwide. During his deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa he planned, led, and conducted hundreds of combat missions under some of the most austere and challenging conditions. He had the privilege to command Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines as part of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), Special Operations Capable (SOC) while attached to 1-9 Infantry Battalion ("Manchu"), 1st Brigade Combat Team (1 BCT "Ready First"), United States Army (USA) as part of the Surge Strategy in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

ISBN/ASIN: ISBN-10: 1621577341, ISBN-13: 978-1621577348
Book Format(s): Hard cover, Kindle, Audiobook
Review Genre: Nonfiction—History
Number of Pages: 256

Borderline Decision by Hugh Simpson

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Borderline Decision is a fun read. I read it twice. The first time, I read it at a fast, exhilarating pace that matched the story. The second time, I read it at a slower, more leisurely pace that allowed me to better experience the unfolding of the story. 

The character of LTC Hap Stoner is a glorious action figure, living true to what he says, "Doing what is right and letting the man upstairs sort the bullshit." The Scorpion character starts out as a memorable bad guy, but does not live up to his potential evilness. Stoner is a strong, powerful character and deserves strong, powerful adversaries, perhaps more powerful. 

Helicopter jargon is delightful and adds strength to the story even when the reader doesn't always understand it. The remaining military jargon is pervasive and sometimes distracting. Thank goodness for the Cast of Characters and the Glossary. 

The plot line was energetic and suspenseful and surprises us when the story does not end when we think it will. To soften some of the military hardness, there are elements of affection presented through the Carla character and touches of the perverse through the Senator character. 
Overall, the strength of the story is Hap Stoner. I look forward to his next adventure.

Review by Gail Summers (June 2019)

---

Author's Synopsis

BORDERLINE DECISION by Hugh D. Simpson Synopsis Deadly alliances between Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel, Black Stone and their mysterious Middle Eastern collaborators spill across the US/MX border leaving an unknown American brutally assassinated followed by an ambush of a US Marine Observation Post, and leading to the capture of LtCol Hap Stoner’s Commanding Officer, LtCol Chuck Warden. With a stubborn streak that’s as big as his heart and as strong as his loyalty to country, family, and his fellow Marines, LTCOL HAP “KANG” STONER leads his squadron of Marine Aviators on an unauthorized mission into Mexico to bring Warden home. US Marine LTCOL “TUNA MAN” WARDEN is a high-value prisoner, an American warrior infidel - whose head will bring a high price for a certain American Senator and the Black Stone cartel. Disgusted by the US Administration’s inaction and recriminations of Tuna Man, Hap leads the Nomads to save his CO’s life while barely staying ahead of his nemesis, Group Commander COLONEL TED SHANK. A Careerist, Shank will do anything, step on anyone to get a star. Colonel Shank works with a corrupt Senator, who chairs the Armed Forces Service Committee. Without US approval, Hap reaches out to his longtime friend, THOMAS “BLAD” LEFFLER and Will Kellogg. Blad, retired from the USMC, has joined forces with the mysterious founder of SHADOW SERVICES INTERNATIONAL, a privately held global intelligence network. Will Kellogg is a former Recon Marine, CIA Operative, former business partner, and casino owner in the Caribbean island of San Andres Columbia. In their initial phone conversation, Hap and Blad realize their missions overlap as Blad discloses that he is missing an agent, SHADOW 28, who was tracking cartel activity along the border - specifically human trafficking. Recently, six teenaged girls disappeared from Phoenix Arizona and now it appears that they and Shadow 28 are victims of a Cartel kidnapping. He and LtCol Warden are being held in a secret jihadist compound deep in the cartel’s territory, a location unknown to those ready to launch the rescue mission. Still entrenched in his CIA roots, Will Kellogg contracts out to various countries and companies around the world. Meanwhile, Marine Corps Commandant, GENERAL RUSS VERBIE testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee defending the actions of LtCol’s Warden and Stoner. However, Col Shank counters Verbie’s testimony under orders from corrupt SENATOR SCOTTY JOURDAN, head of the SAS Committee, who has been making a fortune for himself by conducting illegal business with the head of the drug cartel, known as the “SCORPION.” With help from a number of former combat vets, Hap and the NOMADS elude the feds and embark on a rescue mission to bring back the missing girls, Shadow 28, and LtCol Warden. The action rises during an air attack on Scorpion’s remote cartel ranch, also a training camp for jihadist recruits. Although casualties on both sides are high, the Marines are successful: high-level captives are in custody and the severely wounded are jammed onto one overloaded helicopter for a treacherous emergency transport back to a U.S. hospital. To capture Scorpion, Hap, Blad, Will Kellogg, and their team move in for a dangerous night insertion into Mexico, where they meet up with Blad’s tough female operative ZAIDA, aka Shadow 86. They breach the cartel leader’s posh Mexican resort with Zaida’s invaluable intel and aid. While an ongoing firefight ensues, Hap angrily confronts traitorous Senator Jourdan, a guest in Scorpion’s private penthouse suite, elicits, and secretly records his confession on his phone. After a perilous rooftop battle, a wounded Hap and his battered Marine squadron, who barely escaped with their lives, now must head for home to face the wrath of US officials. CARLA MCCREERY, Hap’s smart, feisty live-in attorney girlfriend, and a top legal team, along with Hap’s very persuasive recording of the Senator’s confession, implicating both Col Shank and Jourdan; turn the tide for the Marine Aviators. Combined, it is a strong enough incentive package for Shank to release and honorably discharge the NOMAD Marines from Marine Corps service. At Hap’s ranch in Texas, Carla nurses Hap as he recovers from his injuries sustained in the firefight at the resort. It’s a well-earned vacation until a mysterious visit with a message from Blad, followed by a phone call from Will Kellogg sets up Hap and the now-discharged NOMAD Marine Aviators, along with Shadow operatives for their next adventure.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-0-692-08298-0 (Soft Cover),978-1-949393-02-6(Hardcover),978-1-949393-00-2 (eBook)
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, Audiobook
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 415

Delta Sierra by Larry Fry

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Larry Fry’s Delta Sierra is a riveting tale that perfectly captures the experience of the Vietnam attack pilots during one of America’s most controversial conflicts.

Gary Deale is a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate who wants to fly fighters. Realizing his dream, he is assigned to fly the F-105 Thunderchief, more commonly known as the “Thud,” and sent to Vietnam. Though designed and designated as a fighter, Thuds were used in Vietnam as attack aircraft, and soon Gary is going deep into North Vietnam to deliver bombs on target. Thud pilots paid a terrible price, with almost half of all Thuds produced being shot down in combat. Will he be able to complete a 100-mission tour?

Back home, Gary’s new bride Allison waits in anxious anticipation for his return. Every waking moment she wonders if she will see him again, or if at that moment, he is even still alive.

The author does a wonderful job of telling two stories, those of Gary and Allison. Gary’s story is told in third person, and Allison’s in first. It’s a bit unusual to switch back and forth between the two, but Fry makes it work. He masterfully weaves the two stories together, leaving the reader as much in the dark as Allison about her husband.

This is a very well done story, with gripping action, tender moments, and real human motion. Though fiction, it feels very real to the reader, and toward the end was very difficult to put down. Those looking to read about the true combat experience both in theater and on the home front will appreciate this book. 

Review by Rob Ballister (May 2019)

---

Author's Synopsis

While flying his seventy-sixth combat mission over North Vietnam on 14 July 1967, Air Force pilot Gary Bishop Deale is shot down by an enemy missile. There is no confirmation from the North Vietnamese as to whether Gary has been captured or killed. His official status is listed as missing in action. Prior to this, Gary’s training at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, before departing for Southeast Asia, prepares him for flying combat missions over a heavily defended area. Upon arriving in Thailand, Gary meets Major Matt Foxe, who becomes his leader. A strong friendship develops between the two men as they execute missions over Laos and North Vietnam. Devoting all of his adult life to becoming an Air Force officer and pilot, Gary wants to fly in combat. But he wonders why many missions are flown against insignificant targets such as suspect truck parks. Allison Faith Deale, his wife and a graduate student at the Marine Lab in Beaufort, North Carolina, receives confirmation of her pregnancy just before being informed that her husband has been shot down by an enemy missile. Married for only seven months, Allison is truly shocked by Gary’s disappearance. The love of her life is missing in action. Allison continues writing her thesis through the turbulence of the Tet Offensive in South Vietnam in February 1968. The birth of their son, Gary Bishop Deale, Junior, provides reassurance and hope, but there is also a dark side to her life. As the years slowly pass by, there is no confirmation that Gary has been captured or killed. Even after the Paris Peace Accord goes into effect and the Prisoners of War return from North Vietnam in 1973, Gary remains missing. After waiting four years, Allison decides to have Gary declared dead in 1977. The Air Force issues a Presumptive Finding of Death—Body Not Recovered at her request. A memorial service is conducted at Allison’s family’s farm in Maryland. She moves on with her life, finding happiness and fulfilment. It is only in 2006, twenty-nine years after Gary went missing that Allison finally discovers his fate.

ISBN/ASIN: 9781475009989
Book Format(s): Soft cover
Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 397

African American Warrant Officers - Their Remarkable History by Farrell Chiles

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

The handsome red, white and blue cover of Farrell J. Chiles’ “African American Warrant Officers: Their Remarkable History,” promises stories of achievements and contributions of the too-long-unacknowledged men and women who have served as warrant officers of the United State Army—those men and women, that is, who administer, manage, maintain, operate and integrate “Army systems and equipment across the full spectrum of Army operations.”  A companion volume to Chiles’s earlier collection, “African American Warrant Officers: In Service to Our Country,” this volume honors the centennial of the Army Warrant Officer Corps by presenting individual vignettes of one hundred African American warrant officers. Chiles has compiled these profiles from a variety of sources, some submitted by individual authors, many written and published by Chiles himself in official newsletters such as the “Rocket” and the USAWOA (United States Army Warrant Officers Association) “Newsliner.”

Chiles opens the book with a short chapter defining Warrant Officer (“an adaptive technical expert, combat leader, trainer, and advisor”) and explaining the different grade, ranks and education system for warrant officers. This is followed by a brief overview of the one hundred year history of the Warrant Officers Cohort, established by Act of Congress on 9 July 1918. The main chapters of individual profiles are then grouped by information source such as newsletters, obituaries and Chiles’ earlier collection, “African American Warrant Officers: In Service to Our Country.”  Each vignette includes the accomplishments and awards of individual warrant officers along with one to three photographs, and many include personal anecdotes and quotations that provide fascinating glimpses into the warrant officers’ lives.
 “African American Warrant Officers: Their Remarkable History” is a handy research guide that offers a series of individual histories rather than the broader history of African American contributions to the Warrant Officer Cohort that the title seems to promise. For his dogged research, writing and publication over the years, we owe a debt of gratitude to Farrell J. Chiles.  His work provides the inspiring first steps needed in illuminating the remarkable history of African American serving their country as warrant officers in the U. S. Army.

MWSA Review by Nancy Arbuthnot (August 2018)

---

Author's Synopsis

African American Warrant Officers - Their Remarkable History is a compilation of articles, biographies, and stories about African Americans who served or are serving in the United States Army Warrant Officers Corps. The book is in conjunction with the 100th Anniversary of the Warrant Officers Corps (1918-2018). There is an African proverb that says "Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." This historical book tells the history of African American Army Warrant Officers. Their history is rich and their achievements and contributions to the United States and the United States Army are remarkable. This book allows African American Army Warrant Officers to tell their stories.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1-63263-785-7
Book Format(s): Hard cover, ePub/iBook
Genre(s): History, Biography, Reference
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Reference
Number of Pages: 258
 

Chopper Heroes by William Peterson

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

This read will take your breath away.  The harrowing details faced daily by Vietnam chopper crew members are vividly presented.  Each brief and deeply personal story creates new visuals of the daily fight to stay alive.  Powerfully moved, I felt back in time--similar to punching big buttons on a 60's jukebox full of deep cuts during that era.  However, this book's selections were not classic music from long ago.  Instead, in an amazing fashion, Chopper Heroes records ordeals faced by our bravest young men in service that are far more powerful than the music back then.  Simply stated, I highly recommend this book to those who appreciate valor and enjoy history about potentially forgotten warriors.

Review by Hodge Wood (July 2018)

---

Author's Synopsis

Chopper Heroes ~ Have Guns Will Travel will introduce many of the survivors of the nasty war in Vietnam. The true, interesting, gut-wrenching and often thrilling stories you are about to read are from men whom I am honored to know. Many of the words written here are theirs from interviews I have done. As a storyteller, I have tried to recapture the events as they happened forty-five plus years ago. The narrative and scenes created here are mostly true, and the dialogue is written for all audiences from teenagers to adults, men and women alike.

ISBN/ASIN: 9781981656943    ISBN-13: 978-1981771561    ISBN-10: 1981771565
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Genre(s): Nonfiction, History, Religious/Spiritual
Review Genre: Nonfiction—History
Number of Pages: 130
 

The Consultant by Tj O'Connor

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

The Consultant by Tj O'Connor introduces us to a consultant for the CIA who likes to work alone and to do things his way.  His superior believes in sharing information on a need-to-know basis and knows his rogue agent well.  Information about Hunter's professional and personal lives are shared with the reader as the story evolves; both are complicated.  He arrives home in Virginia in response to a message from his older brother only to witness his brother's dying words.  He learns of his brother's family as he struggles with relating to various law enforcers.  It's unclear who can be trusted.  As he searches for his brother's murderer, he stumbles into much bigger problems as terrorist attacks on civilians escalate and the country seems to be drifting toward another Middle East conflict.  At times Hunter uses self-deprecating humor that endears the character to readers.  His humor makes the "consultant" more likable in spite of his history of doing horrific things in his line of work.  A timely story worth reading.

Review by Nancy Kauffman (July 2018)

---

Author's Synopsis

When a rogue CIA consultant goes AWOL from his Middle Eastern post in response to his brother’s plea for help, he arrives just in time to witness his brother’s murder. For years, Jonathan Hunter and his brother Kevin Mallory had not spoken—until Kevin’s final words, “… Khalifah … Not Them … Maya.” Pursuing his brother’s killer, Hunter stumbles into a nest of horrifying terrorist activity by Middle Eastern refugees, which sparks a backlash across America. In the shadows, Hunter’s mentor, the omnipotent Oscar LaRue, is playing a dangerous game with Russian Intelligence. Neither Hunter nor LaRue realizes that a new threat—the Iranian threat—has entered the game. Stakes rise as two shadowy players are one step ahead of Hunter and LaRue—Khalifah, a terrorist mastermind, and Caine, a nomadic assassin who dances with the highest bidder. As attacks escalate and the country drifts toward another Middle East conflict, innocent refugees become trapped between the terrorists and the terrorized. Prejudice, hate, and fear vent everywhere. Is this who we’ve become? Before the country explodes, Hunter must find Khalifah, learn the next terror target, and pray he’s in time to stop further annihilation.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1-60809-283-3
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Genre(s): Mystery/Thriller
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 432
 

Air Force One by Nicholas Veronico

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Air Force One, The Aircraft of the Modern U.S. Presidency by Robert F. Dorr and Nicholas A. Veronica is the first in-depth history of the iconic airplane with the call sign "Air Force One" indicating that its passenger is the president of the United States. The book is rich in detail and has all manner of fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpses into the flight, operation, and impact of Air Force One. As the authors point out, though people think that Air Force One is the Boeing 747 painted in presidential livery, the call sign actually refers to any aircraft in which the president flies (the exception being the Marine helicopter he uses, whose call sign is "Marine One"). Covering sixty years of history, it is loaded with historical photos and contains many interviews of people who worked at varying aspects of the aircraft. An important addition to the history of the presidency and aviation.

Review by Dwight Zimmerman (July 2018)

---

Author's Synopsis

The presidential plane wasn’t always known as Air Force One. FDR traveled in the Guess Where II, a transport version of the heavy bomber four-engine Liberator. Later presidential aircraft included the Dixie Clipper and Sacred Cow (FDR), Independence (Truman), Columbine I and II (Eisenhower), followed by Air Force One.

For the last sixty years Air Force One has seen every president and first lady through each administration's triumphs and tragedies, and has flown over a million miles around the globe.

Featuring new and unseen photography of the presidential aircraft, aviation expert and author Nicholas A. Veronico brings the story of the mighty aircraft up to date; detailing how the plane has adapted to the digital age, and what to look forward to as Boeing updates the aircraft once more for 2024.

Get ready to fly!

ISBN/ASIN: 9780760357996
Book Format(s): Hard cover
Genre(s): History
Review Genre: Nonfiction—History
Number of Pages: 160
 

The Wicked Problem of Cultural Heritage and Conflict by Christopher Herndon and Joris Kila

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Though only 134 pages long, "The Wicked Problem of Cultural Heritage and Conflict" is a surprisingly thorough examination of the reasons behind the destruction of culturally significant sites, artifacts, and living creatures in times of conflict and of the institutions and laws in place. The authors provide not only numerous examples, but also identify relevant institutions and international laws devoted to protecting them. They also examine the diverse motivations behind the devastation of looting, trafficking, and outright destruction, and how even the language used to describe such incidents has evolved and become a point of contention. The many recent examples mentioned in the book highlight the scope of the problem and how urgent is to find solutions to solve it. "The Wicked Problem of Cultural Heritage and Conflict" is a good primer for someone looking to better understand this international tragedy.

Review by Dwight Zimmerman (July 2018)

---

Author's Synopsis

The Wicked Problem of Cultural Heritage and Conflict: Military involvement in the protection and devastation of Cultural Property.

The world’s cultural heritage is currently not only threatened by time, nature, and human development and also increasingly by armed conflicts. We see destructions caused by looting and illicit traffic but also iconoclasm and manipulations of cultural heritage for political, religious, economic, and propaganda reasons. Revenues derived from the illegal selling are often used to finance conflicts as illustrated in the Da’esh business model example in this publication. Cultural Property Protection (CPP), while legally mandatory under national and international law, are poorly implemented and sanctions are rarely enforced. There is however, a constant and international demand for education and outcomes of multidisciplinary research on the topic, especially in the context of conflict and crime.

Research must include military perspectives, and common mechanisms connected to abuse and protection. Outcomes should contain academic conceptualization, as well as practice based solutions to diminish and mitigate damage. To meet demands while expanding, and following up on their previous works, the authors wrote this publication. It contains a selection of case examples and incorporates recent developments and trends. All ingredients serve to feed research and dialogue about the use and abuse of cultural heritage especially in the event of conflict, with a focus on cooperation and coordination between civil stakeholders and military parties.

A selection of identified fundamental CPP problems is discussed as part of a comparative analysis with field examples such as the Dugong case, an illustration of overlap between cultural and natural heritage coined as hybrid heritage. Other cases include events in Libya, Estonia, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Mali. All are weighed against Horst Rittel’s wicked problems theory and other concepts while involving new notions of securitization, politicization, memorialization and propagandization of cultural property. Last but not least, the authors signal within circles of IO’s, NGO’s and Governmental parties involved in the management and protection of heritage, an increase of bureaucratic behavior and political use of mankind’s cultural heritage contributing to the current deplorable situation.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-0-9994932-1-2, 978-0-9994932-2-9, 978-0-9994932-0-5
Book Format(s): Hard cover, Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Genre(s): Nonfiction, Creative Nonfiction, Reference
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Reference
Number of Pages: 134
 

Eddie and Bingo : Destination Christmas by Kathleen and Katherine Taylor

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Eddie and Bingo: Destination Christmas by Kathleen Taylor and Katherine L. Taylor is a delightful children’s picture book based on the life of a U.S. Navy sailor. As a sequel to Eddie and Bingo: A Friendship Tale, this book explores the life of a naval combat photographer during the years of the Korean War. The book is a heartwarming tale of normal everyday ship life as well as time spent ashore. Eddie, our “hero” is a regular guy whose kindness and compassion shine through in all he does. After Christmas leave is cut short and Eddie is ordered to return to the ship, the sailors find a meaningful way to share Christmas where they are stationed. And what about Bingo, the dog Eddie discovered on board in the previous book? Rest assured he makes an appearance in this book too, bringing joy to children and sailors alike.

Eddie and Bingo is engagingly illustrated, and children will identify particularly with the facial expressions of the characters throughout the book. They will also find enough detail to capture their attention while someone reads the words of each spread.  A brief glossary of navy terms as well as some fun facts are found in the back, along with some of the actual photos taken by the Navy photographer who is the inspiration for this book.

For those who love the Navy or are interested in learning more about combat photographers, this book will provide exceptional conversations with your young ones.

Review by Betsy Beard (July 2018)

---

Author's Synopsis

Eddie's Christmas Destination is uncertain. Will he fly home to New York City for the holidays?Could he stay in Hawaii fulfilling the admiral's photo assignments? Would the Navy send him back to Japan to be reunited with his pup, Bingo? See what develops this Christmas?

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1-62901-538-5
Book Format(s): Soft cover
Genre(s): Creative Nonfiction, History, Biography, Picture Book
Review Genre: Children & Young Adult—Picture Book
Number of Pages: 48
 

Flowers from Afghanistan by Suzy Parish

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

In “Flowers from Afghanistan” by Suzy Parish, the narrator, Mac, grieving the death of his young son, leaves his wife of seven years at home to accept a year-long position in Afghanistan training police officers. Through his friendships with military and civilian Americans on base and a local contract worker, Gil, and his young son, Mac begins to understand that others’ lives are also filled with pain, and that his attempts to ignore or escape from suffering are fruitless. Although Mac resists Sophie and her faith in God for a long while, in the end he discovers the redemptive power of love.  

Set mainly in Afghanistan, the novel is filled with intriguing glimpses into life in an exotic, war-torn country. The author presents interesting details (many of which, the author acknowledges, come from her husband’s descriptions of his experiences as a police trainer in Afghanistan) of the Afghan countryside and customs as well as life on base. For example, Mac at one point notes that in Afghanistan “beards were honored as the sign of an elder.” At their best, the images reveal a character’s feelings or mindset, as when Mac compares the bright orange sky to “the color of ice cream on a stick I bought as a kid” or when he notes how Sophie, clearly disappointed in his lack of responsiveness, “unwrapped herself from my arm, like removing last year’s worn jacket.” While reading, I often found myself marveling at the strength of an image or a bit of dialogue, such as the time when Sophie asks Mac, who gives her so little emotional support, “Can’t you just pick me up some flowers?” 

“Flowers from Afghanistan,” directed at a Christian audience, is about redemption from suffering. Mac, despite his obtuseness, does grow in faith and ability to love. To me, however, despite the novel’s exemplary use of metaphorical language, Mac and the other characters remain essentially flat and one-dimensional, and the most crucial relationships lack development. Little Mac’s death and Mac’s flight to Afghanistan, for instance, both come too quickly in the book, so that we aren’t immediately drawn into the story and don’t really understand Mac’s motivations. While perhaps not sophisticated enough for a wide adult audience, with some revision “Flowers from Afghanistan” could appeal to YA readers.
 
MWSA Review by Nancy Arbuthnot (July 2018)

---

Author's Synopsis

Weighed down by guilt following the death of his two-year-old son, Mac McCann accepts a year-long position training police officers in Afghanistan. Leaving his wife Sophie to grieve alone, he hopes the life-or-death distractions of his self-imposed exile will build a wall between him and his pain.

As camaraderie builds between Mac and the men on base---including a local barber and his precocious little boy---Mac's heart becomes invested in stories beyond his own tragedy and he learns he is not the only one running from loss. But when the hour of attack arrives, will he be able to see past his guilt to believe there's still something---and someone---worth living for?

With touching details based on true events, Flowers from Afghanistan is a redemptive journey of healing, a chronicle of hope in crisis, and a testament to the faithfulness of God through it all.

ISBN/ASIN: ISBN 978-1-5223-0116-5  ASIN B07BZ2CWXQ
Book Format(s): Hard cover
Genre(s): Fiction, Literary Fiction
Review Genre: Fiction—Literary Fiction
Number of Pages: 200