Mel Odom, Apocalypse Crucible

Apocalypse Crucible

Mel Odom

Tyndall, May 2004, $14.99, 326 pp.

ISBN 0842387765

Millions of people across the globe have disappeared and few know why. In Sanlifina, Turkey, First Sergeant Samuel Adams "Goose" Gandiers knows that his five year old son Chris has disappeared out of the Fort Benning nursery. Though concerned, he tries not to think about it as the Syrians are about to attack the American lines and he doesn't have enough military support to stop them. A rogue CIA agent Icarus tries to find Goose to tell him something about the disappearances while his immediate superior Captain Remington wonders what to do with the sergeant who has chosen a different road than him.

In Fort Benning, Georgia, Goose's wife Megan is ordered to keep a low profile until her trial when she has to defend herself in regards to a teenager she was counseling who vanished while falling off a building; his body was never found, just the clothes he wore. Megan counsels another suicidal teenage when the MPs shoot him.

Alone and separated by more than an ocean, Megan and Goose struggle with their faith as demons from hell prey upon mankind.

APOCALYPSE CRUCIBLE, the sequel to APOCALYPSE DAWN, is an exciting military thriller that takes place over a twenty-four hour period. There is plenty of action as a military skirmish is vividly described that readers feel they are at the battlefield. The protagonist's wife questions what is happening in her world but at her lowest point, she finds the courage to learn the truth that everyone left behind wants to deny. Mel Odom has written a powerful tour de force and readers will want to read the next book in this series as soon as it is published.

Harriet Klausner