Twisting, suspenseful, edge-of-your seat stuff with more than a few “oh shit” moments, Steel Fear is a high-octane thriller delivered by the superb writing team of Brandon Webb and John David Mann.
Finn, an active duty Navy SEAL, is being sent back to the United States from Yemen after an operation went sideways. He’s put aboard the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier for the trip home where he’s to be debriefed. However, while on the ship he can’t help but put his world-class, sniper-trained observation skills to work, which leads him to conclude that several suspicious deaths aboard the vessel are more than meets the eye. These deaths coincided with Finn’s arrival on the ship and cast growing suspicion that he’s a murderer. Complicating matters is that he has gaps in his memory, making it entirely possible that he is the killer without actually knowing it. Compelled to get involved, Finn uses his powers of observation and persuasion to manipulate the investigation in an attempt to find the killer and in the process hopefully clear his own name and conscious in the process.
You would expect a novel set on a nuclear aircraft carrier, featuring a cross-functional and diverse set of characters reflective of today’s US Navy, to be a hardcore military thriller. But you’d be wrong. Steel Fear does probe into the operational lives of Knighthawk helicopter pilots, F/A-18 Hornet pilots, rescue swimmers, and anyone from the ship’s captain to the enlisted men/women doing the dirty jobs belowdecks. However this book is a psychological thriller through and through, focusing less on military operations and more on the profiling and frantic hunting of a serial killer on board, as well as what the situation does to the morale of everyone on board the ship. It’s an unusual way to use of the military in a thriller and a unique spin on a murder mystery book, which aren’t typically set on a 100,000-ton warship in the middle of the ocean. Making this more than your typical serial killer story.
Webb and Mann, who have teamed up to write powerful military non-fiction in the past, deliver a strong effort with their first foray into fiction writing. Steel Fear is a well-written, gripping, character-driven thriller that’s hard to put down. And thanks to strong character development, readers will draw strong feelings about each individual’s nature and moral fiber, hoping to be proven right on the ones we support and really hoping the others get what’s coming to them. It’s this connection to the individuals in the book that propels the story forward, urging the reader to guess who the killer is and to keep reading to find out what happens next. But know this going in…no one, not a single one of the ~6,000 folks on board, are safe. Which makes for a fascinating read.
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