1989 late Cold War naval/espionage thriller. The captain of the
nuclear attack submarine Truculent, sent north to join a large NATO
exercise, has dropped out of communication. But what's he planning to
do?
The inspiration from The Hunt for Red October is clear, and the
cast is substantial: the rogue captain, his officers, the other
captain who knows him and is sent after him, and several factions
among the Soviets. That's necessary, because the main tension in the
book comes from not knowing what the rogue is planning: is he going to
plant advanced, but inactive, anti-submarine mines outside a Soviet
harbour, or hand over one of those mines to Soviet naval intelligence?
Or is he going to do something really stupid that might start a war?
One Soviet faction wants foreign confrontation to draw attention from
domestic economic worries; another just wants to get on with its
technology transfer in peace.
It doesn't help that the captain has learned, just before he sailed,
that not only has his wife been having it away with all and sundry,
the most recent one was a Soviet agent…
This isn't really a tale of heroes, either; there's an obvious good
guy, the rogue's friend who has to stop him, but it's much more about
people doing their jobs, and the senior officers aboard Truculent
very reluctantly coming to the conclusion that they're going to have
to relieve the Old Man of command.
The research is thorough – I didn't spot any errors, and I can be
quite picky [pause for expressions of surprise] – and while the
characters can be weakly-drawn and implausible at times (especially
the civilians) there's enough to them, and enough happening, to retain
my enthusiasm. Not perhaps an ideal place to start one's journey into
real-world naval fiction, but very neatly done even so.
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