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A warm family atmosphere sets the tone on page one, when retired Navy SEAL Nash Crockett tenderly tucks his youngest son into bed the night before the under-age-14 Oklahoma State Championship soccer game. Tension is raised when the next chapter introduces oldest son Travis, a newly married Navy SEAL serving time in Qandahar, Afghanistan, and who is passionate about his little brother’s championship game. Parallel plots quickly raise the conflict in this two-day saga of a close-knit, patriotic, Christian, soccer-loving family in Oklahoma.
Will Travis make it home to his wife, parents, and two younger brothers? Does Dusty’s team win the soccer championship? Will the Navy perform a most sensitive task with honor and humanity? The compressed time span builds masterful tension and no paragraph is wasted. Delicate foreshadowing effectively creates suspense until the very last page. Well-chosen anecdotes and an omniscient narrator quickly build beguiling, believable characters. Readers will cheer for the fun-loving, tight-knit Crockett family and their friends.
Hardage shares a realistic view of the families and friends behind the soldiers who protect America. He goes behind the scenes of the Navy SEALs to reveal difficult and little-known details of certain tasks. (To say which tasks would give away the story.) Underscored is a SEAL’s deeply rooted love of country, high standard of honor, close bonds, and commitment to the task. Readers of Tom Clancy will delight at insider SEAL lingo and talk about Super Hueys and Cobras. All will appreciate a tightly woven, sympathetic view of the repercussions of the War on Terror on family and friends. A strong theme of compassion animates this skillfully rendered and suspenseful story of two momentous days in the life of the Crockett family.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review