Choices and Rules

Larry Bond began his writing career as a co-author with techno-thriller king Tom Clancy of Clancy's 1986 bestseller Red Storm Rising. He's spent quite a bit of time writing his his own since then, and developed the Harpoon military gaming system that's also used by military academies as a training tool. In Cold Choices, he brings back a character from his earlier Dangerous Ground naval thriller, fighter-pilot-turned-submarine officer Jerry Mitchell. Mitchell is the navigator of the U.S.S. Seawolf, an attack sub that has been ordered to sneak into an area where Russian naval forces often conduct war games and leave behind listening devices to gather information on them. U.S. naval intelligence believes that there will be no Russian vessels in the area at this time of the year, but they are mistaken as the Seawolf is discovered by the new Russian attack submarine Sverodvinsk. Some dangerous close passes by the Sverodvinsk prompt the Seawolf to leave the area, but the Russian captain is not satisfied and his last close pass brings about a collision. The damaged Seawolf limps away towards a port for repairs, but turns around when they learn the Sverodvinsk was even more badly damaged and is marooned on the ocean floor. Politicians ashore in both countries have their own agendas and try to drive them, and not all of those agendas have the rescue of the trapped submariners at heart. Bond has done an excellent job of creating a good, old-fashioned submarine thriller after the manner of Run Silent Run Deep or Ice Station Zebra. Sailors on both boats display varying degrees of courage and despair, each dealing with the disaster in their own way. It's a meat-and-potatoes kind of read, seasoned with effective characterizations and enough techincal detail to help the non-naval reader know what's going on.

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In 2007's The Watchman, private-eye novelist Robert Crais allowed Joe Pike, usually seen as partner to Crais's mainstay character Elvis Cole, to take center stage. Pike is back behind the wheel in The First Rule, trying to learn who was behind the death of a former mercenary companion and his family. At first, the deaths seem like the result of a brutal home invasion gang, but some questions about the death of the family's nanny lead to a trail that involves other mercenaries from Pike's past and modern-day East European gangsters that have followed their version of the American dream into Los Angeles. Pike finds himself working with people on both sides of the law to get the information he needs, and at times it's not clear which side he can really trust. Crais manages to bring a different voice to the Pike novels that's a better match for the taciturn soldier of fortune than the smart-alecky, almost breezy tone of the Elvis Cole books. The scenes which include Cole highlight how effective a device that is for creating the atmosphere of The First Rule. But in either voice, Crais keeps the action humming, drops in some well-crafted gun and/or fistfights and doesn't let too much get in the way of the story. In both Pike novels, Crais has offered a little peek under Joe Pike's hood, to see what may be behind the silent enforcer usually seen at Cole's side. It'll be interesting to see how he continues that pattern.