From Publishers Weekly
Generally one of the best writers of military action novels, lately Poyer seems to be having trouble charting a steady course. Here, as in his previous Dan Lenson saga China Sea, he suffers some disappointing lapses. Set in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, the plot moves a curiously matched team of five U.S. Marines plus Lt. Comdr. Dan Lenson (now a navy missile expert) and army Maj. Maureen Maddox (a biological warfare savant) across 500 miles of desert, from Saudi Arabia to Baghdad, trying to avert Saddam Hussein's threat to unleash an unspecified weapon of mass destruction on Tel Aviv. Led by a veteran marine gunnery sergeant and his combat-tested assistant team leader, the group is rounded out with a radio operator, a veteran sniper and an untested rookie. The mission is to chopper in to a safe zone two days from Baghdad and rendezvous with an indigenous friendly asset to guide them to the final jumping-off point just outside Baghdad. Their goal: to reach Saddam's stronghold through the maze of sewers and drains beneath the ancient city. A last-minute change orders a link-up with a British sergeant who has been operating behind the lines; he turns out to be a loose cannon, and the mission starts to go sour almost from the start. Action and suspense are in short supply, ladled out between overlong descriptions of desert and the insides of the Baghdad sewer system. There's too much obscure military jargon, hokey capture and escape, and a work-worn plot, but military action fans and the Poyer faithful will be rewarded by a thrilling conclusion.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Days before the massive ground attack that will climax the 1991 Gulf War, the Allies make a shocking discovery Saddam Hussein may have a weapon of mass destruction that he intends to use against Israel. However, no one is sure what it is, where it is, or, for that matter, whether it really exists. Lt.-Commander Dan Lenson, hero of a half-dozen other modern navy novels by Poyer (e.g., China Sea), leads a mission into Baghdad to find and destroy the weapon at all costs. A band of highly trained and skilled marines and a woman doctor who specializes in biological warfare accompany Lenson. Poyer captures the technical and emotional feel of such a dangerous mission, which ranges across the bleak desert and through the claustrophobic sewers of Baghdad. It is also a mission that must be carried out by otherwise ordinary and flawed human beings. Tense, exciting, and gripping, Poyer's latest will not disappoint fans of his Dan Lenson novels. For all collections. Robert Conroy, Warren, MI
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
