By Lynn Boughey
ISBN: 0942323327
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: North American Heritage Press
Your price: $15.00
Regular shipping is FREE on orders over $50
Need it fast? upgrade to priority mail!
This book usually ships in 1-2 days
Reviewed for Carbon County News by Gary Robson on 12/10/2001
Lynn Boughey's first book, "Mission to Chara," is about a U.S. mission to extract a deep-cover spy from inside Russia. The plot and style are reminiscent of Dale Brown ("Flight of the Old Dog") and Tom Clancy ("Cardinal of the Kremlin" and "Hunt for Red October").
It's obvious that Boughey did his homework. He told me that he's personally visited most of the locations described in the story, and it shows. The descriptions in the book are vivid, and photographs in the book show many of the places depicted in the story. There's even a postscript where the author explains a couple of intentional departures from fact.
"Mission to Chara" mixes traditional military and spy novel writing with an exploration of the post-cold war relationship between the United States and Russia. The fast-paced plot takes us from Moscow to the small town of Chara, from the cockpit of an SR-71 Blackbird flying at Mach 3+ to airfields in North America, Japan, China, and Russia. We visit the Pentagon, NORAD, and the Kremlin.
One thing I found distracting was a proliferation of grammar and punctuation errors. Misused apostrophes, excess hyphens, and the like are sprinkled heavily throughout the book, which detracts from the otherwise fine writing. Hopefully, they'll use a better proofreader on the second edition.
Overall, "Mission to Chara" is a good spy thriller. It sticks to reality rather than overdone James Bond-style action, and builds suspense well. The happy ending has a few fun twists to prevent the wrap-up from being anticlimactic, and all the loose ends are tied up before you close the book.
If you like military and spy novels, you'll like "Mission to Chara."