Black Storm

May 6, 2002
Generally one of the best writers of military action novels, lately Poyer seems to be having trouble charting a steady course. Here, as in his previous Dan Lenson saga China Sea, he suffers some disappointing lapses. Set in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, the plot moves a curiously matched team of five U.S. Marines plus Lt. Comdr. Dan Lenson (now a navy missile expert) and army Maj. Maureen Maddox (a biological warfare savant) across 500 miles of desert, from Saudi Arabia to Baghdad, trying to avert Saddam Hussein's threat to unleash an unspecified weapon of mass destruction on Tel Aviv. Led by a veteran marine gunnery sergeant and his combat-tested assistant team leader, the group is rounded out with a radio operator, a veteran sniper and an untested rookie. The mission is to chopper in to a safe zone two days from Baghdad and rendezvous with an indigenous "friendly asset" to guide them to the final jumping-off point just outside Baghdad. Their goal: to reach Saddam's stronghold through the maze of sewers and drains beneath the ancient city. A last-minute change orders a link-up with a British sergeant who has been operating behind the lines; he turns out to be a loose cannon, and the mission starts to go sour almost from the start. Action and suspense are in short supply, ladled out between overlong descriptions of desert and the insides of the Baghdad sewer system. There's too much obscure military jargon, hokey capture and escape, and a work-worn plot, but military action fans and the Poyer faithful will be rewarded by a thrilling conclusion. Regional author tour.

February 15, 2002
What are Poyer stalwart Dan Lenson and a bunch of marines doing in the Iraqi desert? Aiming to destroy a mysterious weapon that Saddam Hussein threatens to use.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2002
In the latest Dan Lenson adventure, Poyer injects the special ops ace into the heart of Operation Desert Storm and confrontation with the menace of Iraqi biological warfare. Attached, along with Major Maddox, a female army doctor, to a marine recon team aiming to infiltrate Baghdad and target a suspected bioweapons site, Lenson survives claustrophobic rides in a milk truck's tank, mad SAS men, and capture and torture by the Iraqis. Crossing Baghdad literally underground, not to mention underwater, in one suspenseful sequence, the infiltrators find that the only way to destroy the bioweapons safely is to do it themselves, regardless of how ill-equipped they are. In one of the strongest books in an outstanding series, Poyer chooses subject matter timely enough to give one real chills and the overwhelming impetus to keep reading, all the while thanking Poyer for not inflating the word count. The remarkably vivid portraits he draws of the variety of men and women drawn to serve their country merit high praise, too. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)