John Ringo Choosers of the Slain

Choosers of the Slain

John Ringo

Baen, Jul 2006, $25.00

ISBN 1416520708

Former navy SEAL Mike "Ghost" Harmon enjoys living with the Keldara in the Caucasian Mountains of the Republic of Georgia. He has brought his new friends modern weaponry and military tactics so that these courageous tough fighters can hold their own with their enemies like Chechen guerrillas (see Kildar).

New Jersey Senator John Traskel asks Mike to do him a favor; Mike says no as American leaders tend to ask for favors, but vanish when the body count surfaces. Still Mike cannot refuse John's request as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee member explains that someone abducted the daughter of a big contributor, fourteen years old Natalya Fedioushina while she was visiting relatives with her mother in Moldavia, whose only export is sex slaves. The Senator only wants the teen located not extracted; Mike informs Traskel that will run about $5 million and probably be bloody without an extraction. However, tracing the young girl in the Baltics proves even more dangerous than Mike expected because of snakes back in DC manipulating the international sex slave trade.

The latest Mike Harmon (make that Jenkins) thriller is filled with non-stop global action that never slows down until the final DC confrontation. The exhilarating storyline is loaded with several major international subplots that nicely tie together, but can prove difficult to follow or for that matter to find a comfort spot to stop reading for the night. Mike is his usual irascible best when it comes to bullying authority figures and so kind when he relates with the powerless though in this tale he seems more apt to anger than previously in spite of his amusing retorts and asides regardless of the scenario. This is a fine entry that will please John Ringo's galloping ghost fans.

Harriet Klausner