Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Military Thrillers

  • THE WOLF HUNTER: DESOLATION: Mack Murphy Series Book 1 by Terrence O’Malia – Military Thrillers, War & Military Action, Thriller & Suspense

     

    In The Wolf Hunter: Desolation, Book One of Terrence O’Malia’s Mack Murphy series, staff sergeant Mack Murphy is convinced there are three types of people: sheep, wolves, and hunters.

    The sweet, innocent, dutiful sheep are blissfully unaware of the deadly wolves that could strike at any time. But thankfully, the hunters protect the sheep and even seek out the wolves to prevent their attacks on the flock. Mack defines himself steadfastly as a wolf hunter. He loves his family with all his heart and would do anything to protect them.

    Mack’s protective nature continues into his military life where he is part of a team based in the mountains of Afghanistan. Just as it is with his family, he pledges his full allegiance to his team.

    We follow Mack Murphy as his team engages in battle, though his heart is back home where his wife Renee is on maternity leave from her US agent duties. Mack beams with passion for her, and his heart is full of pride for his newborn twin daughters, but he worries he may not see them again. This battle could be his last. He fights hard and smart but, after witnessing his best friend killed in action, Mack’s despair is matched only by his feelings of guilt for being relieved the bullet missed him.

    Tragedy continues to hover on Mack’s horizon. An emergency Red Cross phone call changes his life forever and now the wolves are after his most beloved “sheep”—his wife and children.

    Every step along Mack’s military flight home tests his patience, and when he finally arrives, he finds his perfect life has forever been changed. There had been a time when love conquered all. Now that love is shattered by unknown villains, and he vows to find them and bring them to justice.

    Mack, who once clung to his brilliant, joyful life, no longer fears his own death. Nothing can break his commitment to find justice. He is The Wolf Hunter.

    Terrence O’Malia plunges us into a thrill ride from start to finish. The wolves are prowling, the sheep are helpless, and Mack Murphy, a beleaguered marine with anger issues, is the hunter who vows to end the violence once and for all.

    O’Malia, a doctor and retired marine himself, vividly captures the complex life-threatening situations faced by his characters with an incredible range of emotions. The best and worst of human nature is laid bare throughout this hard-to-put-down story. Just like life itself, what will happen next to the wolves, the sheep, and the Hunter is unpredictable, with consequences that will be irrevocable.

    Both hope and fear drive the reader to keep turning pages as they accompany The Wolf Hunter on his gripping journey.

     

  • FRIENDSHIP GAMES by Mark James – Political Thrillers, Middle East, Military Thrillers

     

    Mark James’ latest geopolitical thriller, Friendship Games, brings together a cast of characters that will keep readers glued to their seats.

    James’ action-packed novel doesn’t waste a second to deliver espionage, military strategies, and defense, as an urgent question takes center stage: who is responsible for bombing the American aircraft carrier, USS George Bush, in the Persian Gulf?

    We begin in Bahrain with twenty-one-year-old Khalid Husseini, a terrorist spy working at the US Naval facility in Manama. He is on his way home to prepare for a birthday night out, courtesy of his American sailor friends, when an explosion rocks the Khawr al Qulay’ah inlet between Muharraq Island and the main Island of Bahrain. Khalid takes it as the sign he’s been waiting for from his Imam, Hussein Salmeen, setting off a series of events the Imam could not stop, even as he wants to with all his being.

    Meanwhile, Hector Gonzales is finishing his day at the US Navy base that Khalid just left. Gonzales, Special Warfare Operator Master Chief of Echo Squad, is celebrating a successful interdiction of a Panama-flagged Japanese oil tanker in the Persian Gulf – whose crew could take comfort that it was the Americans, and not Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, or Al-Qaeda, or another Islamist terrorist group who apprehended their ship.

    When a bomb hits the George W. Bush the tension literally explodes as Gonzales and Chief Petty Officer Buck Bradshaw assume they are under attack.

    Lieutenant Commander Nigel Wood goes into action with Gonzales’s help. Wood, a British/American, Harvard and Oxford grad, Rhodes Scholar, and Navy SEAL, takes charge as commander of Alpha, Bravo, and Echo Squads of the Navy SEALS. He and Gonzales commandeer Logistics Specialist Seaman Apprentice for FSC, Thew Bryson to move much-needed supplies in the crisis. Wood sets Echo Squad on a mission to save the lives of as many survivors as they can from the bombed ship.

    In Iran, Rear Admiral Hashemin Ghavam, Commander of Southern Forward Naval Headquarters at Bandar Abbas, gets news of the bombing of the George W. Bush, and is as confused as the Imam, Wood, US President Bell, Thew, and everyone else. The question of who carried out this attack dominates everyone’s minds.

    Friendship Games becomes a cautionary tale of what could happen if such an attack took place amidst so much political and military tension.

    James brings to life characters from the highest military officers to the lowliest grunts. He does not answer with every detail of this horrific scenario, and as the tale unravels, we meet heroes and cowards and are left to wonder how volatile our position in the Middle East might truly be.

    Mark James’ Friendship Games thrusts readers into a potential nuclear confrontation between the US and Iran. This terrifying and thrilling read earns five stars!

     

    5 Stars! Best Book Chanticleer Book Reviews