Forgotten War blasts you right in the face with violent action in the relentless pursuit of truth and honor, burning bright and hot with the intensity of exploding rounds of white phosphorus juxtaposed with the emotional warm embrace of a beautiful friendship forged in combat.
Matt Drake’s steadfast partner Frodo has been arrested and accused of murder, stemming from an operation in Afghanistan back in 2011. Always having his best friend’s back, Matt dives headfirst into proving the charges are bogus but quickly realizes the situation is quite complex and fraught with danger. Undeterred, Matt will do whatever it takes to help his friend, including an unsanctioned trip to Afghanistan during the chaos of the United States withdrawal where he will hook up with an unlikely group of individuals to track down and extract the one person who might be able to prove Frodo’s innocence. But the Taliban is after the same individual, making it a treacherous race with guns blazing and bombs bursting. But Matt Drake will stop at nothing to succeed in his mission and it would be foolish to bet against him, even when the odds of survival drop precipitously as the enemy closes in.
Unsurprisingly, Matt Drake is put through the ringer once again as he voluntarily puts himself in harms way with little regard to his own safety in order to help his best friend, a woman he’s never met, and an interpreter he served with for one night over a decade ago. He joins forces with an unlikely and somewhat quirky, but highly capable group of co-collaborators to take on this risky mission deep in Taliban-held country with little-to-no hope of backup from the mighty US military. Each of these individuals is driven by a sense of duty, honor and commitment to a cause greater than themselves. Which makes them a formidable unit capable of accomplishing this dangerous, potentially suicidal mission. But undaunted, they march ahead singularly focused on success and taking the fight to the enemy.
While there is a ton of action to make this an incredibly entertaining thriller, the thing that stands out most in Forgotten War is how Matt Drake works through his feelings as the war in Afghanistan comes to an end. In this way, Don Bentley has written what comes across as a deeply personal – and possibly/hopefully cathartic – novel leveraging his experience serving in Afghanistan and the emotions experienced by himself and all veterans surrounding the United States withdrawal in 2021. Combining this powerful and moving theme with Matt Drake’s trademark of heroically running headfirst into an untenable situation with his only thoughts being to help those he cares about, and you have one hell of a thought-provoking and satisfying novel.
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