Special Ops: A Brotherhood of War Novel
Bestselling author W.E.B. Griffin, whose novels about various branches  of the military have won him battalions of fans, returns to the Brotherhood of  War series with this crackling yarn. A detachment of Special Forces hotshots  teams up with presidential counselor Sandy Felter to put a stop to Che Guevara's  attempts to "liberate" the Congo from President Joseph Mobutu's anticommunist  government.Under Felter's direction, the Green Berets dispatch a special detachment to the  Congo. Their mission is to convince Mobutu of the wisdom of the American plan to  discredit and humiliate Che and his Cuban troops, rather than martyr him, and  thus bring an end to his plan to export Castro-style communism to Africa and  South America. Repelling the Simba insurgents with help from forces led by South  African mercenary Mike Hoare, Mobutu accepts the plan, along with the Green  Beret's covert assistance, war materiel, and a fighting force manned by many of  the characters who peopledThe Aviators, Griffin's last Brotherhood  adventure. Yes, fans, the good guys are back--especially flying ace Jack Portet,  (a pilot drafted into the army right out of Leopoldville, where he was helping  his father run a regional airline), George Washington "Father" Lunsford, and  Master Sergeant "Doubting" Thomas. And a lot of them are black, a talented crew  of African American airmen and specialists pressed into the Special Forces not  just because they're brave and able but because they can pass as Congolese  soldiers and thereby keep the American presence under wraps.As a matter of historical fact Guevara failed badly in the Congo, and after  retreating to Cuba, tried the same gambit in Bolivia, where he eventually died  under fire and gained the martyrdom the U.S. tried so hard to prevent. ButSpecial Opsoffers a close-up look at a little-known piece of military  history in a gloriously testosterone-pumped epic, seasoned with a touch of sex  and romance. That may seem incongruous, given Griffin's clipped, terse writing  style, which is punctuated with plenty of military dispatches and a few  gratuitous growls at the internecine rivalry among American intelligence  agencies. It's even more incongruous when the general's daughter gets the flying  ace, and her father's highly placed friends not only get Portet an officer's  stripes but fly her to the Congo to stand by her man. But none of that will stop  Griffin's delighted readers from snapping up his latest chronicle of men at war.--Jane Adams