Customer Reviews

Detachment Delta

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

**SPOILER ALERT**
I'm a first time Bendell reader but I guess I expected more. I found the book informative but it didn't offer anything new. The Indian history was a bit lengthy and unrelated to the story. The show trial at the beginning seemed too far fetched...wouldn't the military intervene prior to the trial to keep things quieter. It was heavy on the cheese with the protagonists stopping a robbery (using the pretext that they're undercover cops while a Little Bird lands in the middle of the street, good grief) and falling in love over a period of days (meeting eachother's parents of course while also teaching some young toughs some manners, geesh). The dialogue seemed at times more akin to a romance novel. I was disappointed that the mission at the end seemed so minor to the story and only lasted a handful of pages. I guess it was my fault for expecting more. Seems that there is plenty of material to make a more realistic, engrossing work of fiction rather than this hunky-dory, everything-works-out-in-the-end, teenage-esque, modern-day fairy tale.

I was very excited about this book when I ordered it from Amazon. The reviews seemed to be good, and the premise interesting- at least on the surface. Being a huge SpecOps fan and an avid reader of over 70 books on the SEALs, SAS, a little Delta, and a few other SFs around the world, even units started up in WWII, and maybe 12-15 of these being fiction works, I have a lot to compare to. Because this was the first fiction work I've come across pertaining to Delta my interest was truly high. Also the American Indian angle seemed to have truly high potential. Unfortunately from a structure standpoint this book makes absolutely no sense at all. I don't know where to begin, but truly this is a very uneven narrative, and gets old fast ( Are we expected to build a temple to worship the Manliness of Charlie Strongheart- by page 60 we are told how studly he looks/is 200 times ). Just to give you an example: there are more words devoted to the deserts the characters eat then actual action. I am being charitable giving this 2 stars. Either write a book about Native Americans role in the modern military, or a SpecOps thriller. Don't trick people into buying something they thought they were getting and actually getting a confusing piece of I don't know what. Looking for hi-tech, hi-oct. action- this book ONLY contains 3% of that, at most. Disappointing....

As an Army retiree of 36 years service, I had absolutely no idea of what Delta Force did or does! This is a fascinating novel of their activities and also a different look at American history, i.e., the indian version of the "other side" of the Battle of Little Big Horn!

I usually space out my reading, however, I found this novel(?)or is it an autobiography(?), compelling and couldn't put it down! The action and intrigue is rapid making it a fast and easy read!

I congratulate author Bendell on a superb work!

I read an interview with the author in the Soldier Of Fortune magazine August issue. He was definitely a real life hero in Vietnam. So, I looked forward to this as my first read of his. As stated in my review headline some of the action passages were really tremendous and lifelike. To my taste, the best was how he took out a NYC cop who was originally a Black Panther who graduated into an al Qaeda terrorist. He had several encounters with street criminal thugs that were quite good. And of course he ultimately dispatched a major terrorist in Iran. These parts were why I purchased and read the book. Exactly what I was looking for. But, for me, way too much of the book was spent on Indian history. There's nothing wrong with being proud of your ethnic heritage. But there are many books that cover General Custer and the famous Indian chiefs, their stories and their battles. Further, I thought entirely too much time was spent on Charlie Strongheart's romantic capabilities, sensitivity and his love affair with Fila Jannat. I bought this book for fast paced action. Plenty of romantic novels available. Still, all in all, it was a good quick read.

I'm not a fan of Fiction and this book is a good example of why. It's difficult to dicern whether this book is about combat or a Love affair.

Lakota warrior Master Sergeant Charlie Strongheart is a member of the elite Delta Force Combat Applications Group (CAG). His current assignment is to assassinate a New York City cop on the streets of Manhattan. He succeeds in taking out James Rashad, but NYPD had a sting operation so the local police angrily capture Charlie as a cop killer. The cops are taken aback as they thought they were conducting surveillance of a drug deal, but are shocked to find a stinger missile inside Rashad's vehicle. The next day Charlie is freed by the court.

The brass assigns Poke as Charlie is called by his unit with a dangerous mission. He and CAG "Funny Platoon" Sergeant First Class Fila Jannart, an Iranian-American, are to infiltrate Iran and terminate jihadist Davood Faraz Dabdeh, whose growing popularity alarms the Western intelligence agency as he claims Bin Laden is a coward and has no compunctions raping and killing female Muslims as well as any American. The difficulty of the mission is killing him without martyring him.

Don Bendell moves from his enjoyable Criminal Investigations Detachment series to the Delta Force CAG thriller, but retains the action-packed excitement while providing the audience intriguing background into his lead couple especially Charlie and what is even more fascinating is what occurs before a deployment. The story line is fast-paced from the New York scenario to the Fort Bragg gangbanging to Iran and never slows down while insuring Charlie and Fila are fully developed. Although a strong bias with an obvious good and bad characterization mindset leading to opposition characters like General Rozanski and the villains seem to be somewhat like caricatures with perversions, fans will relish DETACHMENT DELTA starring two real American heroes with intriguing deep rooted backgrounds especially the heroine.

Harriet Klausner

Bendell weaves a terrific fictional love story into a nonfictional account of how our modern Army Special Forces operate. Read this if you want a new understanding of America's enemy in the 21st century and how difficult and dangerous this war is. This story is a seamless journey from the Little Bighorn to our current war on terror. Good and evil, strong and weak, love and hate, it is all there.

Having read all of Don Bendell's novels I can knowingly say this is the best of his works to date. He gives the reader an exciting dose of up-to-the-minute action and adventure yet blends in sufficient historical fact, military equipment descriptions, political wrangling and top secret activity to enable us to fairly well grasp exactly what our modern elite American Warrior is all about. At several times I had tears in my eyes thinking what it would be like to stand by these characters during various events as they raced across the pages of this too short a novel. Charlie Strongheart of our American Delta Force is the lead character. His upbringing as a Lakota Warrior makes him especially interesting and admirable. As is said by several other characters, this guy is ALL MAN in every way especially when behaving as a true gentleman. He embodies the character, courage and confidence we hope to instill in our children, male and female alike. Fila Jannat, the female lead and Charlie's partner for an upcoming suicide mission, is likewise a modern day American Warrior of whom we can be very proud. She embodies the values and traits we wish for our daughters. She and Charlie make quite a team. I can't wait to read Mr. Bendell's follow-on titles in this series and sincerely hope there will be dozens of them forthcoming. The reader should check out the person of this author to better understand the mindset which sourced this tale. Go to his web site at www.donbendell.com .

An outstanding, action packed military/adventure book! Couldn't put it down and read it in one day. Looking forward to the next Strongheart mission!