When a C-130 bound for Southeast Asia explodes on takeoff at remote Wheelus Air Base, Libya, handsome, hard-charging Captain Joe Harding instinctively realizes that the cargo list--"medical supplies and radio tubes"--was faked. When Joe's newly-married workout buddy does a swan dive off a fifth story balcony in downtown Tripoli, Joe refuses to accept the semi-official verdict: suicidal depression. And when Joe's tennis partner, the son of the American ambassador, decides to celebrate his eighteenth birthday by appearing unannounced at Joe's BOQ door, the potential difficulties of their love-match must be addressed--seriously and without delay.
Continuing the adventures and misadventures begun in Elliott Mackle's award-winning "Captain Harding's Six-Day War," Joe and his fellow officers and airmen contend with a highly decorated but sexually abusive wing commander (who happens to be Joe's boss), a closeted Pentagon official fighting to save his career, a CIA agent who may be an imposter, and shipments of British weapons that fall into the hands of anti-royalist rebels. When a kidnapping goes terribly wrong, Joe must fight for everything he holds dear: duty, honor, country and love.
180 pages, published by Lethe Press, available in paperback and ebook
Review by Erastes
Some books take a while to get into--not so anything I've read from Elliott Mackle, and this is no exception. Right from the get-go we are thrust into Captain Harding's narrative (first person) and within a very few pages, even if you hadn't read the first in this series (Captain Harding's Six Day War) you are up to speed with the good captain and his sit-rep. (ho ho, using jargon because of the military theme.)
In this book he's up against some very powerful forces, the CIA, the American Ambassador to Libya, his cute boyfriend's parents (one of whom is the Ambassador) and a shadowy plot of stolen weapons, a suspected coup, and silenced (murdered) soldiers. Harding doesn't want to save the world, particularly, but he'd like his own to continue relatively unendangered. But seeing as his Lieutenant-Colonel knows he's gay, and there's also a straight buddy who knows his secrets, a beat-off buddy Major, a 17 year old boyfriend and more skeletons in his closet than Hercule Poirot, things can often get a bit hairy.
The main thing I've gleaned about Captain Harding and his book is that I NEVER want to get into the forces, and that goes double for being an officer. The level of intrigue, political shennanigans, hypocrisy and downright double dealing that goes on makes my head spin. I doubt that all units are quite as much as a hot-bed as Wheelus is in the late 1960's but I bet a fair lot of it goes on wherever you are. People have secrets, a lot of secrets and they'll keep them until they think by spilling them they can save their arses.
It's the way the Harding deals with it all that makes this fascinating reading. He's not an angel, and he certainly doesn't have any "Give Me Honor or Give Me Death" going on, but in the main he's a really great guy, and he wants to do the right thing and has to work damned hard at making it happen. He's human--he wants to protect his friends but he has a real human streak of self-preservation, he isn't likely to throw himself in too much harm to do it. Although he might, it just depends if he has to do so to protect those he loves.
And there's the "and his men" tag - and where it comes in. Harding is pushing 30 and as full of testosterone as any man of his age. Despite the fact that he thinks that Cotton Boardman is "the one" they are both pragmatic about their situation--Cotton is 17 at the beginning of the book and they both want to wait until he's "legal" (or as legal as he can be--that is, where it won't make Harding feel so guilty--e.g. 18) and after a couple of unsatisfactory sexual try-outs, and getting caught sharing a hotel room by Cotton's father, they cool it for most of the book while Cotton goes back to school and Harding waits on tenterhooks hoping his career won't cascade around his ears, not knowing when or even if he'll see Cotton again.
So Harding keeps himself busy and his sex-drive under control (mainly) by "rub-downs" with a Major, and buddy sessions with an enlisted airman on TDY (temporary duty) for six weeks at Wheelus. If he gets too desperate, there is a steam-room on base where there's usually someone amenable to a little relief, and a bar in town but both are far more risky. That doesn't mean that he doesn't take risks and it's one of these times that he meets a real Alpha male who gives him such a sound going over that he's dizzy from it, wondering if Cotton is the one after all. But it's this stranger that turns the tide of the investigation Harding is doing, and the man that will be instrumental in cracking the case, but not until everyone has gone through hell.
Just another year in Harding's life! I absolutely love these books, and I really hope that there's going to be a third in the series. The writing is crisp and realistic for men (and women) in the situations that you find them in. The mystery is worth of Raymond Chandler as it twists around, buries itself in official red tape and forged documents, and the characters are fully rounded and fully flawed.
I have no hesitation in awarding this our five star rating. More please, Mr Mackle.
