The Trident Deception
*Starred Review* Campbell utilizes his background as a retired navy commander and his familiarity with submarines to craft a terrific thriller debut. The USS Kentucky has departed on a three-month tour when the captain receives orders that shock both him and his crew. They are to head to an area near Iran, where they are commanded to unleash their nuclear weapons in retaliation for an attack on Washington, D.C. The ship goes silent, and it proceeds on the mission. What the crew doesn’t know is that the orders are false, designed to get the U.S. to make the first strike. The president and the navy continuously send rescind orders, but they don’t know that someone involved in the conspiracy is on board the sub and in charge of the radio. The countdown begins. Campbell does an amazing job, balancing character interaction with high-octane action, all the while keeping the technical jargon to a level understandable by nonmilitary readers. This is the best novel about a submarine since Tom Clancy’s classic The Hunt For Red October (1984). --Jeff Ayers