Karna Small, Bodman Checkmate

Checkmate

Karna Small Bodman

Forge, January 2007, $24.95

ISBN: 0765315424

At Bandaq Technologies, Cameron "Cammy" Talbot leads a team of brilliant technocrats in developing the ultimate missile defense program. She and her crew ignore the Star Wars initiative of shooting the projectile out of the sky. Instead they concentrate on a program that takes control of an incoming missile's guidance system in order to reverse it; hitting the initiator. Due to unsavory lobbying her program is in jeopardy, as Congress considers moving funding to a rival firm supporting the Star Wars initiative.

Still, as Cammy and cohorts make major progress, Muslims steal three Pakistani cruise missiles, firing one at India. This terrorist group intends to take over Kashmir, as they expect India to reciprocate, leading to an all out war with nukes between India and Pakistan.

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Hunt Daniels meets Cammy when someone tries to kill her. They each feel a strong attraction to one another, while someone wants her new technology stopped before completion, with her dead before it can be used to prevent a deadly nuclear war.

The premise of this tale is superb, but Karna Small Bodman is unable to decide between a romantic suspense and a nuclear countdown thriller; the reader gets some of both, but the sum of the parts does not quite make a cohesive whole. Still, the storyline is fun to follow, as Cammy races against time to prove her concept works, even as she ponders whether Hunt is the hunk who makes her feel complete. Congress seems realistic, as money speaks in spite of the cost to the world. Overall, this is a fine novel that will please fans of final countdowns to pending disaster, with a romantic subplot weaved into the last digits.