by Jack Carr
The year is 1968. The USS Pueblo sits captured off North Korea's coast, its crew believing they destroyed all sensitive intelligence. They were wrong. In Vietnam, special operations teams vanish without trace in Laos and Cambodia. A Soviet advisor orchestrates a plan that will shift global power while a KGB operative extracts secrets from a high-ranking CIA official. Navy SEAL Tom Reece operates with the classified MACV-SOG unit when he gets thrust into this deadly puzzle. His official mission takes him from Saigon's streets to the A Shau Valley's mountains, along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and into Laos's secret war. But his unofficial mission could get him killed. As the Tet Offensive looms and America burns with riots and protests, Reece must uncover the truth behind the disappearing operators. The conspiracy reaches from the Kremlin to the White House, and Tom Reece stands at the center of a battle that will determine whether Soviet ambitions succeed. This young SEAL faces his first test in a war where nothing is what it seems.
Genres: historical-fiction, military-fiction, adventure, thriller, action, espionage
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: conspiracy, enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water
Setting: A Shau Valley, Cambodia, Laos, North Korea, Saigon, Vietnam
Period: 1968, Tet Offensive
Paperback
Content warnings: violence, war