The Warriors

Starred review from July 22, 2013
Young's fourth novel featuring Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Parson and ex-Army translator Sophia Gold is a terrific addition to what has become an exemplary series. Stationed at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan, Parson is acting as the base safety officer when an Afghan Air Force C-27 crashes on landing. What seems to be an unfortunate accident caused by a downdraft becomes vastly more complicated when a cargo of opium is discovered. Parson calls in his friend Gold, who's now working in Afghanistan for the United Nations as a civilian, to help him with the investigation, and soon the two are swept up in a much bigger plot to restart the Bosnian War. Young handles all the military thriller logistics like a seasoned pro, getting his likable heroes in and out of trouble, but it's his superior writing that elevates this book above most of the others in this crowded subgenre. Agent: Michael Carlisle, Inkwell Management.

June 1, 2013
Twenty years after the slaughter of 100,000 people in Bosnia, Serbian war criminal and arms dealer Viktor Dusic is intent on re-igniting the campaign against Muslims through acts of terrorism and coldblooded murder. Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Parson, who flew missions in Bosnia and Kosovo, must spring back into action to prevent further atrocities. Parson has just settled into what he had hoped would be a low-key existence as safety officer at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan. Then, a C-27 cargo plane from Afghanistan containing a huge shipment of opium crashes in front of him. To investigate this unlikely event, he reunites with Sophia Gold, a battle-scarred ex-Army friend now working for the United Nations as an expert Pashto interpreter. With the help of Dragan, a University of Chicago-educated Serbian internal affairs cop, and Irena, a young Air Force enlistee who was born in Sarajevo, he infiltrates Belgrade to douse the threat. Young, a decorated former flight engineer with the Air National Guard who served in Kosovo and Bosnia as well as Iraq and Afghanistan, has plenty of real-life experience to draw upon. He is an assured stylist with a gift for subtle characterizations and tightly controlled action scenes. The novel has moral depth as well, shadowing current events with dark moments from the past, notably the tragic 1993 killing of a young couple known as "the Bosnian Romeo and Juliet"--a Muslim and a Christian. Parsons, introduced in Young's stellar debut, The Mullah's Storm (2010), is not the most charismatic hero, but his steady intelligence makes him good company. An expertly rendered tale of lingering hostilities rooted in the former Yugoslavia.

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June 1, 2013
Michael Parson and his friend, Sophia Gold, battle a deranged terrorist who looks to correct history and change the results of the Bosnian War. On his second day at his new job at a Kyrgyzstan air base, Parson witnesses a plane crash on the runway. Inside the wreckage is a stash of opium. The drugs belong to arms dealer Viktor Dusic, who intended on using the funds from the drugs to finance a coup. With his core team, he hopes to instigate a terrorist attack that will begin the Bosnian conflict anew. Dusic is a savage who sees himself wronged by the past and happy to use any level of violence to achieve his goals. Young experienced the events of the Balkan wars first hand, and his knowledge translates well to the page. The reader develops a true understanding of the atrocities that occurred in the region and shares Young's concern, expressed in an afterword, that this level of ethnic violence never happens again.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)