Peacemaker [Hardcover]

Gordon Kent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 2001

U.S. Navy pilot and intelligence officer Alan Craik returns to rescue a downed friend and colleague in this second thriller in the series by a former military father-and-son writing team.

Gordon Kent, the pseudonym of a father-and-son writing team, both of whom have served in the U.S. Navy, brings back Alan Craik in this second tour de force of a thriller. This time, Alan has just returned from sea duty and is stuck behind a desk in the Pentagon. When he learns that his best friend, a CIA agent, has been kidnapped in central Africa-just as Rwanda is about to be engulfed in violence-he doesn't need an excuse to set out on a rescue mission. After flying out to join a Mediterranean-bound U.S. fleet that is covering the growing Africa crisis, he soon finds himself stranded, along with his wounded friend, in the middle of the continent as war rages all around.

Taking the reader on a roller-coaster ride-from a nighttime helicopter raid in snow-covered Bosnia, to a wing-and-a-prayer flight in a single-engine plane over the African jungle, and a marathon mission on board a Navy jet-this multilayered tale of betrayal, conspiracy, and modern espionage confirms Gordon Kent as a major new voice in

contemporary military suspense writing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This fireball of a military thriller will send those new to the author racing to get Rules of Engagement, the sleep-erasing debut novel by Kent (the pseudonym of a father/son writing team). Few authors integrate multiple plots with such dazzling 3-D realism and technical accuracy,; here, Kent pits the stalwart Rules heroes against viperous villains on three continents. Naval Lt. Alan Craik is resigned to sitting out a Washington office job while his wife, Lt. Comdr. Rose Craik, prepares to direct the shipboard launch of Peacemaker, a top-secret military satellite, in the Gulf of Sidra off Libya. Thrilled when a high-level shakeup lands him the post of information officer on the launch support flagship, Alan has barely established himself on board when a report comes in that his best friend, Harry O'Neill, a black rookie CIA agent, has been kidnapped by Hutu rebels backed by a sinister, hawk-nosed Serb terrorist known as Zulu. Setting out with a tough navy SEAL, Alan rescues the gruesomely injured O'Neill, and the three men attempt a near-impossible escape across Africa, pursued by cold-blooded mercenaries. Meanwhile, Rose learns that her duplicitous American superiors are concealing crucial Peacemaker information, and faces down not only a Russian nuclear submarine but also an attack by the Libyan government and the French right-winger Lascelles, Zulu's main backer. Harrowing shipboard battles, nail-biting emergency plane flights and riveting action in Sarajevo, central Africa, Washington and France drive this turbocharged thriller. A tour de force with near hypnotic pull, Kent's second outing scores a bulls-eye and saves rocket fuel for a sequel.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gordon Kent is the pseudonym of a father-son writing team. Both authors are former intelligence officers and pilots in the U.S. Navy. The book's protagonist, one Alan Craik, is the navy pilot and intelligence officer who was the hero of Kent's first novel, Rules of Engagement (1999). In this new novel, Craik sets out to rescue a colleague, a CIA agent, who has been kidnapped in Uganda. Kent then moves the setting from Washington to the deck of an aircraft carrier, from a submarine base in Russia to Sarajevo, from Zaire to Naples. And even Beijing, Cannes, and Belgrade are included as locales. There is lots of flying--helicopters, a single-engine plane, and a navy jet--and enough military jargon to fill a trilogy. The action is nonstop and the violence gets pretty gruesome, but Peacemaker is a rousing sequel to Rules of Engagement. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; 1St Edition edition (April 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399146636
• ISBN-13: 978-0399146633
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,702,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gordon Kent was (is, I suppose) two people, my son - Christian Cameron, author of TYRANT and WASHINGTON AND CASEAR and other books - and me. The reason for the pseudonym was the obvious one that two names on a cover were not thought as good as one. And of course the one needed to be anglo and male; my suggestion of Max Cohen got nowhere, as did several dozen others we trotted by the publisher. Eventually, we settled on Gordon Kent: Gordon was my father's name, my son's middle name; Kent, oh, well.

We wrote eight novels - the Alan Craik books - under this pseudonym, starting with NIGHT TRAP (RULES OF ENGAGEMENT in the US, probably one of the most overworked titles there is) and ending with the much darker (and more satisfying) SPOILS OF WAR and THE FALCONER'S TALE. The books were about the air side of the US Navy, mostly about intelligence, but with a lot of derring-do that real intel officers never get to play at. They were usually fun to write because we'd both been in the navy, my son a good deal longer than I; we had our differences, as any two people must, but it was a surprisingly workable relationship. Lots of long-distance telephone calls, occasional meetings to go fishing and use the time in the car to plan books. We worked from outlines made on those trips, then divided the scenes up - we quickly learned who did which sorts of scenes and which characters better - and then we wrote and exchanged files and bickered and praised and wound up with a book.

Is Gordon Kent finished? We wonder. We're both writing our own books now under our own names, but occasionally we feel a nudge to go back to that partnership. Maybe, maybe....

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Navy, yet, very readable., August 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Peacemaker (Hardcover)

Gorden Kent - an supberb father/son writing team. Very current Navy with women playing significant roles. Complex and exciting. Once into it, I couldn't put it down until I was finished.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 6 Months' Reading, but a naval classic, July 19, 2003

By 

Ufowriter "Ufowriter" (Eastern England, as usual!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peacemaker (Hardcover)

Deary me, what a fantastic book! Okay, it took me from January to July to read it, but I'm all the more happy for reading it.
The novel starts at the main character's house, the main character being Alan Craik. The main characters are having a farewell party in the house: Al Craik is going to NavyIntel; his wife Rose wants really to be an astronaut; Harry O'neill, a funny guy with a lot of good wit is going to train to be a good spy; Dukas is going to an intelligence agency IVI; and the Peretz's are going also into the intel industry. Craik is out in the navy: there will soon be a launch of Peacemaker: a missile that the public, and some of the military even!, think is a satellite capable of keeping peace all around the world 24/7. Of course, it's not that at all. It's a missile capable of dropping hundreds of Uranium rods and exploding them with force. That is what scared me at first reading. Dukas finds Pigareou, a French intelligence officer who is hunting out war criminals: Dukas decides to join him. For months, they are looking out for the world's most dangerous war criminal who could potentially destroy the Peacemaker Ops. Fleetex, the pre-launch exercise goes disastrously wrong as the navy, and the big headed admirals, feel that their crews are bad, and I mean bad. Craik abruptly leaves the ship off the coast of Zaire as he finds an astonishing but worrying piece of truth: Harry O'Neill has been captured. At this point, there is a lot of bloody war and terrorism: in Bosnia, Colonel Zulu, the infamous war criminal is craving to cause chaos and mass death: he needs to mass produce murders for he himself was a sad child, but the reader reads more in to that in a later chapter. When O'neill is found, and both Craik, Harry himself and Al's helper, Djalik, are found to be desperately ill and injured, they find that Rose is doing a fab job of the Peacemaker Op, it's just that their footsteps in the mud are being traced: by Russians and Libyans. Mike Dukas has found, through a Serbian spy, Obren, where Zulu is. In other words, Zulu is going to get shot any point in the book. Part three? I'm going to refrain from giving too much away, but the Russians and Libyans are mistaken for the bad ones in the blue sea? But what are their real intentions? Is the US Navy really playing the good guy in the game?

I personally believe that if you have the time to read such an epic thriller, and the notion that there are always bad people in good institutions, you would really enjoy this book. It may be long, but if you hack through the pages and really appreciate the atmosphere attained on such a matter, you would really lov it. I'll award five stars.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad at all, January 10, 2002

By 

N. Brett (Wiltshire, England) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Peacemaker (Hardcover)

A vast improvement from the previous book and benefits from being longer and more complex. Fast moving and although nothing new, it is well put together and weaves a number of storylines together effectively. A little rushed at the end but an entertaining book and a lot to suggest that there is even better to come from the Kents.