Gale Force

March 1, 2018
The author of the Stevens and Windermere novels (The Forgotten Girls, 2017, etc.) taps into his nautical knowledge for this rousing seafaring yarn.In Yokohama, Tomio Ishimaru sneaks onto the cargo ship Pacific Lion with a silver briefcase containing $50 million worth of bearer bonds he's stealing from the yakuza crime syndicate. On its way to the United States, the ship changes out its seawater ballast incorrectly and begins to list to one side. Soon it founders and might even sink. Everyone except the stowaway abandons ship and its cargo of 5,000 Nissans 200 miles off the coast of Alaska. The ship desperately needs a tow, so several salvage tugs race to the scene, including Gale Force. McKenna Rhodes inherited the tug from her father after he was killed in an accident at sea. Now she and her crew head out to right the crippled ship and tow it to safety, her first salvage job on her own. The stakes are high--the Pacific Lion's owner agrees to pay Rhodes $30 million if they haul it safely into port, "but the crew wouldn't be paid one salty dime if they couldn't save the ship." It's an unusual story premise, and a good one--quick, name the last tugboat thriller you've read. The crew respects Rhodes as "a damn fine salvage captain" in an overwhelmingly male profession. Smart, brave, and worried, she knows how to command her crew and guide the tug through towering crests and swells. In the midst of all this, the crew must board the damaged ship and pump water back in to right it before beginning to tow. The beleaguered vessel may well take some Gale Force crew to the bottom of the sea. Belowdecks, Ishimaru hides with a treasure and a pistol, setting up an inevitable confrontation. Someone will get rich, and someone will die.Action-loving readers will be thrilled with this one. Laukkanen is a damn fine storyteller.

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March 26, 2018
McKenna Rhodes, the heroine of this melodramatic nautical thriller from Thriller Award–finalist Laukkanen, blames herself for the death of her father, Randall, the maverick captain of the salvage tug Gale Force, who was lost at sea during a risky operation. Three years later, McKenna, who has inherited the Gale Force, hopes for a big payday after the Pacific Lion, a Japanese freighter full of brand new cars, founders off the Alaskan coast. Her success hinges on the involvement of Court Harrington, her former lover, who’s a gifted naval architect. What McKenna and her team don’t know is that the Pacific Lion also carried millions in bearer bonds stolen from the Yakuza, making that vicious organized crime gang, and the thief, her adversaries, in addition to the perilous waves. Readers expecting the clever plotting of Laukkanen’s Stevens and Windermere crime series (The Forgotten Girls, etc.) will be disappointed to find only predictable action tropes. Author tour. Agent: Stacia Decker, Donald Maass Literary Agency.

April 15, 2018

A freighter founders at sea, and the chase to rescue its cargo begins. McKenna Rhodes, captain of the salvage boat Gale Force, sees this as a chance for a big payday to resolve her company's debts and perhaps find the personal redemption she desperately seeks. A rival, who wants to see McKenna's business sink along with the cargo ship, arrives first, and with him is a passenger who knows that hidden on board are bearer bonds stolen from the Japanese mob. All of them collide in a tumultuous and stormy rescue that is destined not to go according to McKenna's well-laid plans. VERDICT Clive Cussler's early novels meet The Poseidon Adventure in this mix of maritime details with crime fiction elements. While a forced romance distracts from the intense narrative, the story's driving force, McKenna Rhodes, makes this a worthwhile entry in the world of nautical fiction. Future stories involving our protagonist will be more than welcome. [See Prepub Alert, 11/21/17.]--Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2018
A massive car-carrier ship, the Pacific Lion, transporting 5,000 Nissan autos, leaves Yokohama for the U.S. Stowed away is a Yakuza accountant carrying a briefcase containing $50 million in negotiable bearer bonds to be laundered in the U.S. In Seattle, McKenna Rhodes, captain of the oceangoing tug Gale Force, is still mourning the loss of her father to a rogue wave and the end of her brief affair with a handsome, full-of-himself naval architect. She's also worried about finding the money for major engine maintenance. But news of the Lion dead in the wild seas south of the Aleutian Islands, and listing 60 degrees, could mean an eight-figure payday if Gale Force can get a line on the ship and keep it from sinking. McKenna and her crew head west, aware of the risks but not expecting Yakuza gangsters and even piracy. Laukkanen has lots of rich material to work with: a woman competing in a male-dominated, cutthroat business; the laws of salvage and the sea; giant cargo ships; the cold, dangerous North Pacific; the role of the Coast Guard; and, of course, the Yakuza. Gale Force is compulsively readable?and a ripping-good yarn, perfect for all lovers of sea adventure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)