Dangerous Ground » (First Edition)

LARRY BOND is the author of numerous New York Times bestselling thrillers, including Vortex, Cauldron, and The Enemy Within. A former Naval Intelligence officer, warfare analyst and anti-submarine technology expert, he makes his home in Springfield, Virginia.

The US submarine Memphis should have been mothballed decades ago. Instead, she is charged with one last, secret mission: to locate leaking containers of Russian nuclear fuel on the floor of the Arctic Ocean. More than just an environmental nightmare, this radioactive burial ground houses enough nuclear capability to destroy most of America's major cities.

Lead by the Bligh-like commander Lowell Hardy, the Memphis' crew deals with flaring tempers, faulty machinery, raging Arctic Seas, and their newest crewmate, Jerry Mitchell. Mitchell was a naval pilot whose career ended with an unfortunate accident. Politics got him assigned to the Memphis as a weapons' officer. Now his novice skills may very well be the ship's greatest liability.

Making matters worse, the President has appointed two civilian scientists to lead the mission. Dr. Joanna Patterson and Dr. Emily Davis soon find out that no matter how much power the president has granted them, this is still Hardy's ship.

Nor is this mission what it seems. Lurking beneath the frigid, black, radioactive waters is a secret far more deadly than anything naval command could imagine—-a secret so menacing the Russian fleet is hell-bent on destroying the Memphis and all who sail in her.

Publishers Weekly

Calling to mind such undersea techno-thrillers as Clancy's The Hunt for Red October and Hagberg's By Dawn's Early Light, this latest outing by Bond, a former naval officer turned bestselling military suspense author (Larry Bond's First Team, etc.), is an edge-of-the-seat yarn about an aging nuclear submarine on a secret mission to Russian waters. Using his senator uncle's political clout, Lt. (j.g.) Jerry Mitchell-a former pilot permanently grounded thanks to a wrist injury sustained in a freak carrier crash-has found his way into submarine training, where, among the other basic skills, he becomes an expert on the Manta, a robot device used for underwater exploration. Cmdr. Lowell Hardy, veteran skipper of the Memphis, a nuclear sub long overdue for decommissioning, is given orders to take Dr. Joanna Patterson from the President's Advisory Science Board and her comely young assistant, Dr. Emily Davis, into Russian waters to look for evidence of illegal disposal of nuclear waste. Mitchell's alleged political pull and the presence of women aboard create unrest among an already unhappy crew. Somewhat predictably, the mission uncovers a major threat to world security and the suspense cranks up when the Russians learn they've been found out. Despite an obligatory surfeit of naval alphabetese and a muster of trite maritime stereotypes with seabags full of childish personality conflicts, this is an engaging read. Agent, Robert Gottlieb. Major ad/promo. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.