Arctic Gambit: A Jerry Mitchell Novel

The first half of this book should be consolidated into one or two chapters. As it is, there is nothing but meetings, soul searching and hand wringing about the upcoming mission. Except for the prologue, the story doesn't get near the sea in this section. Just after the half way point, the action really picks up, and you have a very good sea story on your hands. The submarine action is very well done, but it would have been a good idea to include a few diagrams or charts to show what is happening. Details of the final phase of the mission are a little sparse, and it is left to the epilogue to tie up the loose ends.

More than 30 years after Clancy’s “Hunt for Red October”, first-line subs have not lost their capacity to fascinate in the hands of a fine storyteller.Larry Bond’s sub procedurals featuring Jerry Mitchell are always good, and this is no exception. Bond crafts a plot with higher stakes than usual. There’s always tension in a sub novel, as our heroes risk detection and almost certain death hundreds of feets deep. But Bond gives us the risk of nuclear war both with a new twist and in way that feels real and plausible.Putin’s successor thinks along similar lines. He eyes the rest of Ukraine, the Baltic States - and more. And he plots to neutralize NATO while he tilts the balance of power.With tensions ramping up in Eastern Europe, a sub commanded by one of Mitchell’s pals is sunk off Russia’s Arctic coast. But photos transmitted just before show an offshore construction project.Mitchell’s onetime captain Lowell Hardy is now president, and his wife Joanna Paterson is former National Security Adviser. The White House reaches a stunning conclusion: the Russians have a new first-strike nuclear weapon and will use it, moving on the former Soviet states during the chaos created. Troop movements, masked as field exercises, are really preparations for invasion.Mitchell, now a squadron commander, is sent on his best sub as commodore to advise the captain in a dangerous mission: taking out the underwater Russian weapon site, where his good friend just died, before it can be used.There’s a lot to like about these novels. The first half is growingly tense talk as the administration and their spooks and engineers try to dope out what’s going on. How can they tell the lost sub crew’s families what happened without admitting to spying on the Russians, or tipping the Russians to how much they already know?Bond gives us great realism in how the Great Game is played at high levels these days, and the subtlety involved in bringing complex technology to bear on the other side’s equally complex technology to glean the truth and grasp what the moment now requires. In a scenario where no adversaries ever see each other, we see combat of wills in Washington between competing national security visions, and on the sub between Mitchell and the sub’s captain, who sees Mitchell’s presence as a vote of no confidence.Mitchell is the most bland of action heroes. Bond’s characters all tend to be two-dimensional. I hardly ever remember them, but I remember the theaters of war - South Africa, a fictional European war where France and Germany are the bad guys, his four part series on a Chinese invasion of Vietnam, the frozen waters off the Russian coast.Perhaps that’s the nature of procedurals: the characters recede so we can focus on the situations and the gear, and in the contrast between what a cautious, bold or reckless person might do - and what a smart one does.Mitchell (both smart and bold) is a regular guy who has worked his way up, distinguished himself heroically, bucked orders a few times but (of course) been proven right, and been happily blessed knowing a power couple who become president and National Security Adviser. We tend to like him: he’s considerate of those around him, decisive, smart, but he’s not quirky or distinctive in any way.What’s interesting here is the technology and tactics: what it takes for a nuclear submarine to sneak into the enemy’s most closely guarded lair, then escape without starting a world war.

While this should not surprise anyone, the Russian leader wants to take Europe and keep the US from intervening.  There is a new US President (with USN Submarine background – convenient), the Russian President is a heavy handed, prior KGB thug, satiated with early successes he just knows that the US will be impotent with his new weapon threatening them.  Our hero, Jerry Mitchell and the US Navy Submarine force save the day, using all the technology and luck they have (no luck just professionalism, maybe).  Larry Bond continues to write novels that keep you reading long after you should have turned the light out.

This was the best book yet, a mature Jerry Mitchell is one hell of a character. All I can say is there better be another, I never get tired of the story lines or this character. Fantastic book, all should read the series. As always great detail and a well developed story, I do admit this book should have been longer there were very good possible side stories that should have been developed. Over all outstanding.

this one grabs your attention quickly and never lets vo. The action details and sub maneuvering and give a good look inside the tactical aspects of underwater warfare. I hope the author is able to come up with another plot to write about. This book would make a terrific movie,compete with any of the sub movies made

Glad to see he is back. A decent Jerry Mitchell story. Good pacing, some intrigue, I enjoyed it. There could have been a little more fog of war and the Toledo incident could have been drawn out in more detail.

Good intrigue but dull at times. An American sub mysteriously disappers in the Arctic Ocean and an investigation is conducted to learn what happened. What they learn could shift the balance of power to favor the Russians who have sinister plans for Eastern Europe.

I like all of Bond's books, but I am particularly fond of the Jerry Mitchell series. It was good, but somewhat predictable. It was also shorter than most. The main characters have now risen through the ranks as the book is written in the not-too-distant future, which I really wasn't too fond of. The best part of the book is that it is very topical. The very day that I finished the book there was a big story on the Internet about the Russians building the same weapon talked about in the book. Great job, Larry. You are always on-point on these topics.

Well-paced and beautifully written, the novel overcomes the preposterous central premise and makes it possible to suspend disbelief long enough to thoroughly enjoy the book.