Greg Iles is an enjoyable writer, who has three series and several stand alones to his credit. The first book I read of his was a stand alone called 24 Hours, and I marked it as OK. I vaguely recall having an issue with the credibility of the main characters, but was impressed enough to try him again.

The Quiet Game delivers authentic insight into race relations in the South. The writing is good and engaging, as is the plot. Penn goes home to his parents in Natchez to recoup from the death of his wife seven months previously. He is a Houston attorney turned author with a  Little Cloudy four-year-old daughter. We see his hometown and early life through his memories and people he knows.

Natchez Is a Reminder

Natchez is a reminder of what could have been a different life with a different woman. Penn becomes engrossed in his past, when a woman asks him to investigate the 1968 killing of her husband, a black man involved in the civil rights movement. All evidence converges on a man that Penn has hated for the near destruction of his father and the end of his high school romance. The city of Natchez is full of secrets that lie beyond discussion. Thus, we have The Quiet Game.

I feel that the author is a little too focused on being popular and capturing not only the thriller market, but on attracting romance readers as well. And it is the romance part that falls short of reality, especially with his female characters. Can an intelligent, ambitious, shoot-from-the-hip female reporter also be a seductress? Maybe, or maybe that is the author’s ideal? I find it shy of plausibility as presented. The tells are subtle, but, as I have been told, trying to be all things to all people often ends up disappointing everyone.

Keeping in mind that both 24 Hours and The Quiet Game came out early in his book-writing career, I do recommend Greg Iles, and I don’t plan on letting another eight years go by before I read another of his books.

Rig Ship for Ultra Quiet

“An emergency deep will get any submariner’s attention.”

The US fast attack submarine–one could only imagine what John Holland or Horace Hunley would have thought if they could have been transport ahead a hundred years to see what their works had wrought. Andrew Karam’s book gives the non-qual and civilian world an unfiltered look at the end product of those early pioneers’ vision. Rig Ship for Ultra Quiet chronicles life aboard the USS Plunger over the span of a single patrol. As with most modern era submarine accounts, this is not a war tome. That does not mean Rig Ship for Ultra Quiet is a pleasure cruise. By nature, racing about at flank speed submerged to 600 feet and trailing Soviet subs by sound alone is inherently dangerous. Every man about the vessel plays a role in the success of the operations.

Shoreside Preparations

Karam’s story outlines the shoreside preparations, the drills, and the exercises conducted in the Cold War era in an orderly and comprehensive fashion. He is a 27-year old Petty Officer, in charge of the Plunger’s chem techs. His duties include testing and adjusting the boiler water chemistry and monitoring radiation safety, duties every bit as critical to the sub’s survival as navigation and weapons control. Plunger is one of the older Permit-class boats in the Pacific fleet, a complex machine that requires constant attention and maintenance. That does not spare her from frontline service against the Soviets. Plunger is tasked with picking up a Delta IV leaving Petropavlovsk. Karam manned the time-bearing plot as part of the tracking team. Plunger closed to within less than a mile to trail, occasionally within 300 yards when the Russian boomer reduced speed and drifted. Karam and Plunger follow the Delta all the way into the Sea of Okhotsk, a hotbed of Soviet sonar buoys and ASW activity. Her success is a testimony to the discipline and training of US submarine crews.

Task of Monitoring

Plunger’s to-do list is expanded with the task of monitoring Soviet fleet exercises close-up. With a host of Soviet ASW planes, helos, and ships on high alert combing the area looking for American subs, searching diligently for Plunger… she obliges them by deliberating taking the bait and sneaking into their midst, working up fire-control solutions and taking photographs. It’s an  Quiet books astonishing feat and Karam does an good job laying it out.

Life aboard a fast attack during peacetime is not all battlestations and crash dives. Karam succeeds in reporting the mundane daily rituals without boring the reader. Amid the fires, events, and casualties there is still room for practical jokes, the kind that the armed services are noted for. During a film an argument erupts over John Wayne’s sexual predilections. One crewman baits another with the fact that the Duke was gay. His joke is turned on him when one of the senior enlisted men points out that Wayne played a Navy officer and disparaging an officer’s reputation is a punishable offence. The original prankster is taken aback and the episode becomes a running joke that escalates in humor and deed.

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