Tom Young has logged nearly four thousand hours as a flight engineer for the Air National Guard in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, and elsewhere, including Latin America, the Horn of Africa, and the Far East. His military honors include two Air Medals, three Aerial Achievement Medals, and the Air Force Combat Action Medal. He continues to serve with the Air National Guard as a Senior Master Sergeant. He is the author of Silent Enemy and The Mullah's Storm.
Young's experience as a pilot in several war zones informs every line of his riveting third novel featuring Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Parson (after 2011's Silent Enemy). Now an adviser to a helicopter unit in Afghanistan, Parson requests that his interpreter friend, Sgt. Maj. Sophia Gold, be deployed back to Afghanistan to help with relief efforts after a major earthquake. Just as Parson and his team are about to lift off with a number of injured Afghans, members of a terrorist group called the Black Crescent shoot up their helicopter; soon after, they kidnap a 10-year-old boy from a nearby village. Parson and Gold get on the trail of the Crescent leader, Chaaku (the Pashto word for knife), and in a last deadly battle bring a measure of justice to their corner of the war. Young's precise, evocative prose brings a far-off war into sharp-edge focus while honoring the heroic servicemen and women who fight against extraordinary odds. Agent: Michael Carlisle, Inkwell Management. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Afghanistan is one of the most tortured places on Earth. Host to what seems to be a never-ending litany of war, it is also prone to massive earthquakes. Thus, when one does strike and the United States tries to send in aid, a splinter Taliban group uses the chaos to launch strikes against the aid workers. Lt. Col. Mike Parson and his interpreter, Sgt. Major Sophia Gold, try to coordinate rescue efforts bringing in badly needed aid, but they first must destroy the Taliban group. As the American military is drawing down its level of forces in the country, Parson and Gold are on their own with little in the way of resources to help them. Verdict Young's third thriller featuring Parson and Gold (The Mullah's Storm; Silent Enemy) is extremely well written and revolves around two people who are trying hard to do the right thing under incredibly brutal conditions. The war in Afghanistan is particularly hellish, which will, sadly, limit readership appeal of this title. Purchase for demand. [See Prepub Alert, 1/8/12.]-Robert Conroy, Warren, MI (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
"There are writers, and there are fighters-readers are lucky that
[Young] is both." -Alex Berenson, #1 New York Times
bestselling author of The Shadow Patrol
"Young is an excellent storyteller, creating memorable characters
with Hemingway-like understatement and precision."-Kirkus
Reviews
"A natural-born novelist."-John Casey, National Book Award-winning
author of Compass Rose and Spartina
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