The Renegades

Starred review from May 28, 2012
Young’s experience as a pilot in several war zones informs every line of his riveting third novel featuring Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Parson (after 2011’s Silent Enemy). Now an adviser to a helicopter unit in Afghanistan, Parson requests that his interpreter friend, Sgt. Maj. Sophia Gold, be deployed back to Afghanistan to help with relief efforts after a major earthquake. Just as Parson and his team are about to lift off with a number of injured Afghans, members of a terrorist group called the Black Crescent shoot up their helicopter; soon after, they kidnap a 10-year-old boy from a nearby village. Parson and Gold get on the trail of the Crescent leader, Chaaku (the Pashto word for knife), and in a last deadly battle bring a measure of justice to their corner of the war. Young’s precise, evocative prose brings a far-off war into sharp-edge focus while honoring the heroic servicemen and women who fight against extraordinary odds. Agent: Michael Carlisle, Inkwell Management.

July 15, 2012
New hell has been visited upon war-torn Afghanistan in Young's (Silent Enemy, 2011, etc.) latest action adventure tale. A devastating earthquake has struck. Villages are left in rubble. Thousands are homeless, exposed and in need of rescue or relief. Into the breach goes U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Parson, a decorated combat veteran now working as a liaison with the Afghan Air Force. Parson is an experienced navigator and airlift pilot, but even though he isn't a "rotorhead," Parson is working with Capt. Rashid and his crew flying a Soviet-built Mi-17 helicopter. In assisting in organizing and administrating effective Afghan flying units, Parson has requested the help of a colleague from another combat service, Army Sgt. Maj. Sophia Gold, a skilled translator of the Pashto language. The two are soon tossed into a chaotic situation. A Taliban splinter group, the Black Crescent led by Bakht Sahar, known as Chaaku (knife in Pashto), is killing aid workers, disrupting delivery of supplies and, worst of all, taking children hostage to be used as suicide bombers. Young writes solidly about the complex dynamics of Afghan-American interaction. He also explores social differences by having Gold become a vital link in the attempt to wheedle information from one of the wives of Mullah Durrani, veteran of the mujahedin and the Taliban, grown too old to fight. In fact, Gold arranges a clandestine meeting and goes on a rogue mission to see Durrani. From there, she develops information that leads to the discovery of Chaaku's fortress redoubt. Young is an Iraqi-Afghan war veteran, and he treats Afghan allies with due respect, acknowledges difficulties in bridging the gap between cultures and crafts a bad guy worth shooting. His grasp of military terminology, esoteric paraphernalia and ethos are spot-on, but don't expect a ratcheted-up, loss-of-city narrative standard in a Tom Clancy or Dan Brown thriller. The slam-bang, good-guys-win conclusion comes with a well-described battle at Kuh-e Qara Batar, Chaaku's mountain lair. Real-life experience translated into page-turning fiction.

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February 1, 2012

Young follows up The Mullah's Storm and Silent Enemy (not to mention nearly 4000 hours with the Air National Guard in Iraq and elsewhere) with another thriller drawing on Middle East tensions. Afghan Air Force adviser Lt. Col. Michael Parson and his interpreter, Sgt. Maj. Sophia Gold, are on hand when American troops hurry to deliver aid after an earthquake devastates Afghanistan. A Taliban splinter group called the Black Crescent is making the effort truly hell. Interesting to see where Young's writing will go as our objectives in the region shift.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2012
Michael Parson and Sophia Gold, the heroes of The Mullah's Storm and Silent Enemy, return in another military thriller that should appeal to the author's expanding fan base. Afghanistan is hit by a massive earthquake, and American aid workers are immediately on the scene. But an extremely nasty offshoot of the Taliban is attacking not only the aid workers but also any Afghan citizens who accept foreign aid. Can Parson and Gold execute a plan designed to stop the splinter group in its tracks? Featuring well-drawn characters, natural dialogue, and a story that's both timely and frighteningly plausible, the novel should work for readers of Dale Brown or Larry Bond, although it must be noted that Young is a smoother, more accessible writer than either Brown and Bond: his characters feel more like real people, and his prose style is much more pleasing to the eye. Young is still an up-and-comer, but it shouldn't be long before he's one of the guys other up-and-comers are compared to.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)