cover image Raid on Truman

Raid on Truman

John T. Campbell. Lyford Books, $19.95 (290pp) ISBN 978-0-89141-386-8

When power changes hands in North Korea, the new government plans an international coup: a U.S. aircraft carrier and its escorts are attacked by nerve gas and, while the crews are unconscious, helicopters land commandos on the USS Truman 's flight deck. A capital ship, its nuclear weapons and thousands of hostages will be the prizes of victory. But some of the Truman 's engineers remain on their feet, and some of its planes are still aloft. Lieutenant Paul Simmons and commander Rex Hastings lead the battle to save their ship. Though its premise is interesting, this contemporary techno-thriller, a first novel, is handicapped by an unlikely love triangle involving Simmons, Hastings and Hastings's wife, and by a North Korean plan of attack altogether too dependent on luck. Campbell, a former Navy engineer, balances these shortcomings with an exciting account of the below-decks fight for control of the Truman and with several well-executed scenes of aerial combat. (May)