NEPTUNE STRATEGY [Paperback]

John J. Gobbell (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (2004)
• ASIN: B000OTK5IY
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

More About the Author

JOHN J. GOBBELL is a former Navy Lieutenant who saw duty as a destroyer weapons officer. His ship served in the South China Sea, granting him membership in the exclusive ATonkin Gulf Yacht Club.@ As an executive recruiter, his clients include military/commercial aerospace companies giving him insight into character development under a historical thriller format. A Code For Tomorrow is the second of four stand-alone novels in the Todd Ingram series. Altogether, he has written six novels involving U.S. Navy action and is currently at work on his seventh. He and his wife Janine live in Newport Beach, California. He can be reached at [e-mail]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gobbell at his exciting best!, April 4, 2004

By 

George Wallace (Washington, DC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Neptune Strategy (Hardcover)

From the first page, Jack Gobbell draws you into the drama and excitement of the battle for the Pacific during WW II. You feel the heat, smell the cordite, sense the fear and bravery. As a fellow novelist, I am awed by Gobbell's skill at story telling and character development. He will have you on the edge of your seat as Todd Ingram struggles for survival against Shimada, the Japanese master submariner, and Taubman, the greedy Nazi. A must read!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Neptune Strategy, June 24, 2004

By 

Gary S. Vandeweghe (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Neptune Strategy (Hardcover)

Webster defines intrepid as "characterized by resolute fearlessness, fortitude and endurance." Roget offers courage, bravery, valor, spirit, daring, gallantry, derring-do, audacity, dash, defiance and self-reliance as synonyms.

Spring 1944 finds our intrepid hero Navy Commander Todd Ingram on the bridge of his Fletcher class destroyer, the U.S.S. Maxwell, on picket duty ahead of the Mariana Islands invasion fleet. Caught by eight Japanese attack bombers, Todd gets blasted into the sea and shortly thereafter rescued by a Japanese submarine. Our favorite Navy storyteller, John J. Gobbell, tells this continuation of Todd's saga in The Neptune Strategy.

The Japanese submarine that picks Todd up is reported sunk in a torpedo bomber attack. Although battered, the boat survives and continues what turns out to be a rogue mission as a ghost ship. Todd is treated as slave labor, and guarded night and day. The language and cultural differences make it worse. He has some contact with a German officer traveling with the Japanese, but otherwise is starved, beaten, tortured and worked to the point of death.

The rogue sub heads west through the Indian Ocean, stopping in Madagascar en route to the Nazi submarine pens in France to return the Nazi officer to Europe. Todd is transferred to another submarine headed back to the South Pacific, but not before he sees a huge stash of gold ingots hidden under the submarine's diesels.

Back in Southern California, a very pregnant nurse, Todd's wife, Army Captain Helen Ingram thinks Todd has been lost at sea. The Navy knows that he was rescued, but cannot reveal that they are reading Japanese codes, and so she cannot be told he is still alive.

Even in 1944, it was a small world, and it looks like the parties are all headed for New Caledonia in the south Coral Sea. The Neptune Strategy will take you there to see what happens.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fun read!, July 31, 2004

By 

J. Taylor (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Neptune Strategy (Hardcover)

John J. Gobbell's "The Neptune Strategy" is another great read that follows three previous books featuring war hero Todd Ingram. The action and suspense never stops. And the historical setting, in this case the Normandy landings and the Battle of the Philippine Sea, gives the reader a great history lesson. Compared to the previous books, "The Neptune Strategy" contains more international intrigue. I would not have thought that Gobbell would have ventured to Europe, but he does with a gold-hungry Nazi submariner who finds his way from the Pacific to the Atlantic. And Ingram is along for the ride! I hope that Gobbell has enough ideas for a final installment for the war's finale. In all, a really fun book to read!