Spirit Mission

In 2015, U.S. Army aviator Sam Avery, the narrator of Russ’s exciting, cleverly constructed first novel, is the pilot of a Chinook helicopter on an unauthorized mission into Iraq. Flashback to 1987. Sam arrives at West Point and is immediately submitted to the harassment inflicted on all cadets every minute of their day for their entire first year. Sam rooms with Cisco Guerrero, who earns the nickname Turtle because of his slowness. Of particular interest is the upperclassman known as Guru, who takes the new cadets under his wing and is soon sending them on “spirit missions,” fiendishly elaborate unsanctioned pranks that are undertaken for the sheer glory of pulling them off. Years later, it’s Turtle and Zack Dempsey, another West Point roommate of Sam’s, who show up in Iraq and tell Sam that Guru, now a charity worker, has been taken prisoner by ISIS and will be beheaded in 24 hours unless they rescue him. Once again the old friends are on a spirit mission, this time against seriously deadly odds. Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Ltd. (U.K.). (Nov.)