Ambassador's Son » (Reprint)

Homer Hickam is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Rocket Boys which was made into the acclaimed movie, "October Sky." He is also the author of the bestselling The Keeper's Son and many other books including The Coalwood Way and Sky of Stone. He and his wife and cats share their time between homes in Huntsville, Alabama, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Rocket Boys continues the wartime saga of Josh Thurlow that began with The Keeper's Son.

It is 1943, and the struggle against Japan rages across the steaming, jungle-choked Solomon Islands. As the fate of the South Pacific hangs precariously in the balance, Lieutenant David Armistead—a Marine Corps hero and cousin of President Franklin Roosevelt—is rumored to have deserted, perhaps to the enemy. For Coast Guard Commander Josh Thurlow, the news is particularly bad. He befriended Armistead while fighting by his side. Now he has orders straight from the top to bring him back or kill him in the attempt.

Pressed into the mission is an officer who couldn't be less like Josh: a shiftless PT boat skipper named John F. Kennedy. To find their elusive quarry, they and Josh's crew of misfits must face dangers as exotic as the lush battleground that surrounds them, including implacable Japanese, an Australian coastwatcher-turned-warlord, and a beautiful seductress who will either steal Josh's heart—or have his head...

"WWII storytelling at its best."—James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys

"Great war novels are often great adventure novels, too, and...The Ambassador's Son qualifies on both counts."

—James Reasoner, author of The Last Good War series

Publishers Weekly

Following The Keeper's Son, this is the second in Hickam's superb series about the WWII adventures of U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Josh Thurlow and his daffy crew of coastal North Carolina misfits. In 1943, Josh and his men are fighting the Japanese around the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. Josh, tough as a boiled owl, likes to carry an Aleut ax and drink Mount Gay rum. Still, when he's assigned a curious secret mission, he's not sure he's up for it. A Marine lieutenant, David Armistead, a cousin of President Roosevelt and Josh's friend, has deserted, and Josh is ordered to find him and bring him back for court-martial, or kill him. Josh teams up with another disgraced officer, U.S. Navy Lt. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who is awaiting his own court-martial for losing his boat, PT-109. Josh and JFK are an interesting pair-the one a rough cob, the other a Harvard blueblood-and together they get themselves into loads of trouble with Japanese soldiers, gangs of cannibals, a beautiful native girl who chops off heads and a nutty cargo cult leader. Add fierce, bloody battles and steamy tropical island romance, as well as hilarious cameos by Richard Nixon as an enterprising supply officer and James Michener as a navy historian, and the result is a funny, tightly wrapped tale of wartime action. Agents, Frank Weimann and Mickey Freiberg. 6-city author tour. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.