The Pepperdogs: A Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Bing West (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2003

From Bing West, author of the acclaimed war chronicle "The Village," comes an explosive novel of high-tech warfare, international politics, and the unbreakable bonds of loyalty under fire.

At the end of a three-month tour in Kosovo, five American Marine reservists are looking forward to going home -- until one of the men runs into a pack of bloodthirsty Serbian soldiers, and disappears. After patrols fail to find him, Captain Mark Lang breaks ranks and moves the rest of his recon team -- dubbed "the Pepperdogs" -- deep into forbidden Serbian territory to rescue their friend.

What begins as a rogue mission soon takes on global implications when one of the team members begins posting their actions on the Web, drawing worldwide attention and further igniting an already volatile situation. With the eyes of the world upon them, and the life of their friend at stake, the only things the Pepperdogs have left to depend on is their weapons, their instincts, and each other.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

West (The Village), a former Marine captain and assistant secretary of defense, adds a cyber-age twist to the military rescue formula in his fiction debut, which follows a group of biologically enhanced Marine reservists as they attempt to rescue a colleague, Capt. Tyler Cosgrove, captured while on patrol in Kosovo by Serb renegade Saco Iliac. The rogue Serb promptly tries to capitalize on his capture by phoning in a ransom demand to Cosgrove's fiancee in Manhattan. Meanwhile, the Marine team nicknamed the Pepperdogs (because they "run like a dog with pepper up its arse") sets out in hot pursuit, taking advantage of the performance-enhancing drugs the military is feeding them to close the gap in a hurry. The fun begins when the team's communication expert, a computer geek named Harvell, uses their Web site, Pepperdogs.com (best known up to this point for offering a dating service that introduced U.S. and NATO military to "attractive, English-speaking, wholesome" Kosovar women), to post periodic progress reports on the rescue mission. Before long, the whole world is tuning in and the rescue becomes an international media spectacle. West introduces too many characters and gets carried away with his plotting: the Marines hurry to rescue Cosgrove in time for Christmas and before his gravely ill mother dies of cancer. Still, his military expertise is evident, the cat-and-mouse game offers gripping chase scenes and the cyber angle provides comic relief. There's plenty of intriguing adventure here for military action fans.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Vince Flynn New York Times bestselling author ofExecutive Power [A] riveting thriller filled with the details only a military and government insider could provide. Bing West knows his stuff. -- Review

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Star (December 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743456432
• ISBN-13: 978-0743456432
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,501,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pepperdogs, January 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Pepperdogs: A Novel (Hardcover)

I found this book to be factual and as a former Marine I could relate very easily to what the characters in this book were going through. After reading this book, I would rank Bing West among the great war writers as W.E.B. Griffin and Tom Clancy. As an Old Corps Marine, one can appreciate the sentence that Bing West writes...."no crusty Marine colonel limping along behind them, telling them what to do." Any Marine would see the allusion to Colonel Chesty Puller. I would recommend anyone to buy this book, as I surely enjoyed it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Pepperdogs is a book for women as well as men, January 9, 2003

By 

Rosalind Hoey (Boston,MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pepperdogs: A Novel (Hardcover)

I just read this thrilling adventure and I must say women will find it as enjoyable and interesting as men. Of course it has hot marines, but it also pulls at your heart strings and brain cells, too. The tale is smart, sophisticated, fast paced, with more that one woman in a strong role. Not just the weapons are high tech; clever uses of cell phones, websites, and hand held computers keep The Pepperdogs an appealing page turner of a read. Realistic, tender relationships engaged in true suspense make it difficult for the reader to put down the book until the outcome is known. Read it during the day, because if you start it at night, as I did, you won't want to turn off the light till you know if each relationship is resolved--and you won't know that till the last page.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exciting techno-thriller, January 18, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pepperdogs: A Novel (Hardcover)

Captain Tyler Cosgrove, US Marine Corps Reserve, is doing his last patrol in Kosovo because he has been granted leave to fly back to the states to see his dying mother. One hour before his patrol is over, his path crosses that of Soca, a psychopathic Serb who just killed a woman in cold blood and stole her valuables. When the captain tries to stop him, his foe knocks him unconscious and takes him across the border into Serbia.

Captain Mark Lang is very close to Cosgrove and is determined to find him and bring him home. Accompanying him are the men in his unit, THE PEPPER DOGS. They all come from New York and their families are all close friends. When an official rescue attempt fails, the men go it alone. Deliberately ignoring orders and prepared to take the consequences, their exploits are being broadcasted on to the net with pictures and text turning them into real American heroes. Politically and diplomatically their country doesn't know what to do with them but even the hard-liners hope they will make it back to safety.

BING WEST has written an exciting techno-thriller that is in the same class as the works of Dale Brown and Tom Clancy. The men that comprise THE PEPPERDOGS are true heroes because they do the right thing in searching of their friend even though they have to go outside legal channels to do it. There is so much action in this novel that the reader will want to finish in one sitting to find out if everyone makes it back alive.

Harriet Klausner