First published 2009
The USS Houston, Franklin Roosevelt's favorite warship, finds herself trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor with no hope of reinforcement. Her crew faces a vastly superior Japanese force bent on total conquest. The navigator tells a young officer they're heading straight to Hell as they chart their course into naval legend. Night battles turn the decks into strobe-lit killing fields while Japanese bombers rain fire from above. Through superhuman effort, the crew escapes disaster repeatedly until their luck finally runs out in Sunda Strait. Hopelessly outnumbered, the Houston sinks and her survivors become prisoners. For over three years, their families know nothing of their fate. In brutal jungle POW camps, the men endure forced labor on the Burma-Thailand Death Railway, fighting starvation, disease, and psychological torture. They resist dehumanization with dignity, ingenuity, and sabotage, sustained by unshakeable faith that America will prevail.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, military-fiction, action, naval-history, american-history
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: resistance, survival
Setting: Pacific Ocean, Sunda Strait, Burma-Thailand Death Railway
Period: World War II
544 pages · Kindle Edition · Bantam
Content warnings: torture, violence