FALLEN ANGEL by Major Jeff Struecker and Alton Gansky

Review By Nike Chillemi –

This is one of the best, if not the best novel I’ve read this year.

A United States spy satellite, Angel 12, has dropped from space and is headed for the interior of China. However, when Space Command at the Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska takes a second look, they realize the Chinese have deliberately knocked the satellite out of orbit, intending for it to fall on their soil.

Space Command manages to make some adjustments to the orbit just in time and the satellite crashes in Siberia not far from the sea, which is a much more accessible location. Now it’s up to Sgt. Major Eric Moyer and his elite Special Ops team to find the satellite and retrieve it’s technologically advanced nuclear jet fuel that cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of the Chinese or the Russians. And both nations are on the hunt for it.

From the beginning the team has an uphill battle. First of all their mission puts them on Russian soil, a hostile nation they have no permission to be in. Second of all, since the breakup of the USSR, this particular part of Siberia is controlled by insurgents. These insurgents have already captured one US team and are torturing them.

As I turned the pages, there was always a silent clock ticking. Would our special ops team find Angel 12 in time? That was often in doubt. At one point it seemed as if both the Russians and the Chinese were ahead of Major Moyer’s team.

I thoroughly enjoyed the sub-storyline showing the difficulty of Army special ops families who get little to no notice that their husbands and fathers are shipping out to parts unknown. All they know is the mission is super dangerous. In this novel the team doesn’t even get to say goodbye to their families face-to-face, but is only allowed to make a few quick phone calls before they ship out. When a family member is kidnapped, that means there is an intelligence leak somewhere in the military chain of command on this operation…perhaps even treason.

I had no trouble understanding the military jargon. I enjoyed the competitive banter the members of the special ops team constantly threw back and forth – up to a point. But eventually it put strain on the suspension of my disbelief. I thought, it’s not like this on an actual military special ops mission. There would be at least a few off color remarks. For my part, I would’ve liked a tad less jocular banter and would not have minded a few, only a few, mild “bad words.”

This is a must read for anyone who is a fan of military action-adventure stories. Suspense fans will also greatly enjoy this story. There’s no romance in the usual sense of the word when we speak of the different genres. But these special ops soldiers and their wives share deep love stories which the authors depict in a multi-facetted way. Not to mention the love they bear for their children. It becomes obvious what type of sacrifice this type of soldier makes to keep the American public safe and secure.

Shadowed in Silk by Christine Lindsay

Review by Nike Chillemi –

SHADOWED IN SILK by Christine Lindsay won the 2011 Grace Awards in the Action-Adventure/Western/Epic Fiction category. This story is a page-turner packed with action and suspense. It’s a dramatic love story much more than a romance. The writing is lush, transporting us back in time to the Raj period in India. The research done on the time period was outstanding. The descriptions of Indian life, exquisite and detailed.

Main characters Abby Fraser and Major Geoff Richards have been thrust into a situation that is complex, awkward, and sometimes brutal. These two engaging characters meet aboard on ocean liner bound for India. Major Richards is returning from the battlefields of Europe with what is left of his brave Indian troops to rejoin his regiment. He’s shell shocked and mourning the loss of his men. The daughter of a British officer, but having spent her teen years in America, Abby is returning to her childhood home where she and her young son Cam will rejoin the husband she has been separated from during the war.

When they disembark, sadly, Abby’s husband is not on the pier to meet her and the boy. Geoff is about to help her when they bump into Miriam, an old friend of Geoff’s, an Indian Christian woman who runs a shelter for widows and orphans. To her surprise, Abbey discovers her hard drinking husband is so much less than the man she thought he was. The treatment she received for years at the hands of her neglectful father and aunt has made Abby feel invisible and now her husband’s rude treatment only serves to reinforce that. Abby and Geoff are drawn to each other and he would like nothing better than to help her and little Cam. However, he is a Christian and would never allow himself to become involved with a married woman. Inadvertently, he pulls back at times when she is most desperately in need of a friend. Left adrift, she becomes the pawn of a Russian spy dedicated to stirring up unrest in India.

This is at the time when Gandhi is organizing his “peace revolution.” The reader is deftly brought into what life was like in the 1990s in India…Indian culture, food, clothing, customs, wilting heat and humidity. The British and the native characters are three dimensional, well crafted, and believable. My only problem is with the numerous Indian words. A glossary is provided, but I eventually gave up looking them up and simply guessed at the meaning. The reader gets a wonderful glimpse of the world of missionaries and native-Christians at that time. In fact this makes it easy to care deeply about these characters, especially Miriam, who had a committed and gentle walk with the Lord.

I highly recommend SHADOWED IN SILK. This story has enough twists to keep readers up into the wee hours of the night turning pages. It you’re a lover of historical fiction, especially novels in exotic settings, this is a must read.