Dead Man Launch by John J

REVIEWS DEAD MAN LAUNCH BY JOHN J. GOBBELL URING THE THICK OF THE COLD WAR After graduating from the academy in 1965, Jerry in the 1960s, the United States and the earns his wings at Pensacola and opts for anti-sub- D Soviet Union were entangled in an un- marine warfare (ASW), flying the Lockheed P-3 dersea naval chess match. One false move on either Orion, “a four-engine turboprop with long legs.” side could have touched off a nuclear firestorm. Marriage to an eye-filling model and an assignment By the summer of 1962, the Soviets were build- to a squadron based in Sicily unexpectedly thrusts ing submarines, armed with nu- the newlyweds into the cross- clear-tipped torpedoes, at a hairs of the Italian police, Mafia breakneck pace, in many cases and U.S. State Department. sacrificing quality standards for On the island of Oahu in Ha- expediency, while putting crews waii, now Vice Admiral Ingram at risk. has his hands full at the Kunia In Dead Man Launch, the Regional Signals Intelligence sixth historical thriller featuring Center, tracking a Russian sub American naval officer Todd sailing from Vladivostok. Ingram, John J. Gobbell puts a At Sochi, Russia, on the Black human face on those from both Sea, Captain First Rank Eduard sides who embarked on perilous, Dezhnev, Soviet naval officer often deadly, cat-and-mouse and an agent working for the missions. CIA, is about to run for his life, Rear Admiral Ingram, nearly with the KGB in close pursuit. two decades removed from Aboard the nuclear submarine World War II, commands cruis- USS Wolfish in the North Pacif- ers and destroyers in the Pacific. ic, Jerry Ingram, on a training His son, Jerry, a third-year mid- Starboardside Productions, $14.95, mission, witnesses a horrific inci- shipman at the U.S. Naval Acade- U.S. Trade Paperback / $7.95, Kindle dent, which reverberates all the my, is on a summer cruise aboard Available Now way to the Kremlin and Wash- the destroyer USS Mallilieu, shad- ington, DC. dowing the Soviet nuclear submarine K-12 south- In the early ’60s, Gobbell served as a deck and east of Okinawa. ASW officer aboard the destroyer USS Tingey (DD It’s unsettling even for a career navy father, who 539) in the South China Sea. His meticulous atten- knows his son is in danger, with a “mushrooming tion to historical, naval and cultural detail – a signa- Soviet submarine threat.” And, worse, he’s not able ture in his novels – is reflected in a stirring and to share much with Helen, his retired army nurse briskly paced narrative. wife, who went through plenty with him after the Dead Man Launch brilliantly brings to life an era Japanese invasion of the Philippines during the war. when mankind teetered on the brink of Armaged- In true Gobbell fashion, the fervor surrounding don and promises to keep the reading lamp lit into the Ingrams is about to escalate. the wee hours. 24 | WINTER 2018.

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