Barracuda 945

An awesome piece of fiction... and you'll definitely want to know what happens after you are done the last page - get Scimitar SL 2 to find out after you are done this one.

Barracuda 945 by Patrick Robinson is a fun, well-written, fast paced adventure novel. I have read several of Mr. Robinson's books and this is one of his best. The plot flows well for a "quick read" military fiction book. A new nemesis for Admiral Morgan is introduced in the body of the SAS Major Kerman turned Hamas terrorist leader. I am currently reading Scimitar SL-2, which generally takes up where Barracuda 945 left off and does so very well so far. Mr. Robinson writes good miltary fiction on a world-wide scale dealing mostly with submarines and Seals, with a few picks, and justifyably so, at a couple of past liberal Presidents who let our military down along the way. Some of the plots may be a little "imaginative" but they make for interesting stories and characters, and just a good, fun read for the military fiction fan.

Patrick Robinson's last book, THE SHARK MUTINY, showed a mildly original and promising idea but was spoiled a little by a preposterous ending. This next instalment in his series featuring Vice Admiral Arnold Morgan is back on top form with very good research and some blazing action scenes which whisk the reader along at a lightning pace! BARRACUDA 945 starts off in 1995, when one Major Ray Kerman is accepted into the elite British SAS Regiment. Move forward to 2004 where we find Kerman on a top secret antiterrorist operation in Israel taking down HAMAS fighters as part of the war on terror. Kerman, we learn, is of Iranian descent and was brought to England in 1979 after the fall of the Shah and the subsequent troubles, and was kept in check by a fundamentalist Muslim cleric in London. When an SAS mission searching out a HAMAS terror cell in Herbron goes wrong and explodes into a full scale bloodbath between Palestinian fighters and Israeli Defence Force troops, Kerman's loyalties are put to the test when those close to him are under attack by Israeli forces. He then goes AWOL, murdering his fellow officers, and joins up with HAMAS.Vice Admiral Morgan and his trusty NSA liason Lieutenant James Ramshawe, an Australian officer who is really the main good guy character in the story as it is his hunches on Kerman's whereabouts that get results, soon links his fugitive to a robbery in Tel Aviv, but what is the purpose of this? How does it all tie up with a massive prison breakout in Nimrod, Israel, of known HAMAS terrorists? Years later, Kerman, now operating under his Iranian birth name Ravi Rashood, recruits many of those he freed, and also his new wife, Shakira(who is nothing to do with a certain pop singer!), and purchases two thought-to-be-unseaworthy Barracuda Class subs from cash-strapped Russians through Chinese military officers who support his plans. Rashood/Kerman plans to attack America's West Coast and its oil and power infrastructure to create economic turmoil. In 2008, the terror attacks begin, foxing the US military and pushing the US President into a corner. It seems like another 9/11 has taken place. Yet James Ramshawe still has a hunch, will anyone believe him? When Admiral Morgan learns the true nature of the attacks, will the President be forced to act? Read on!Once again, Patrick Robinson has created another fast-paced submarine story which often reads like tomorrow's news headlines! The submarine scenes and Navy SEAL operations in the later half of the book are as realistic as you can get, it feels as though you are there - inside the Barracuda with the bad guys, stopping the bad guys in the jungles of Panama and even at the Royal Ascot horse race meeting when Kerman tries to meet his parents and assassinate Admiral Morgan in the process in a minor subplot. Robinson does not go into too much technical detail about the submarines, just enough so that anyone unfamiliar with naval matters can understand, so as to keep the story flow

I really enjoyed this book and found myself becoming completely absorbed in the story. This was the first book by Patrick Robinson that I had read, and given the length I was somewhat concerned that it might be overburdened by detail, as many books of this genre have tended to be as author's have followed Tom Clancy down the path to boredom. However, the methodology utilized by the author kept that from occurring although there were certainly a few instances of unnecessary digressions or more detail than necessary to advance the action and create an aura of believability.After the action involved in a brief but essential prologue which occurs in 1995, the remainder of the story occurs during the years 2004 thru 2008, and while I concur that the essential details of the plot are quite improbable, I do not consider the general outline of the story to be as far outside the realm of possibilty as some other reviewers. In fact, one reviewer has criticized as totally impossible one essential element of the plot that actually is historically accurate - that is the fact that the Clinton administration under terms of the Panama Canal treaty negotiated by the Carter administration essentially allowed control of the Canal to be turned over to a company that many people believe is an agent of the Chinese government. The fact that the author is a very knowledgeable military journalist who obviously possesses excellent political contacts is one of the factors that made the book so enjoyable for me. The way such details are inserted into the story in most instances make them much less disruptive to the flow of the story than other books of this type. However, as my title indicated, there are several sections late in the book with scathing criticisms of the Clinton administration by some of the characters, and while I actually agreed with the commentary and enjoyed it I agree with other reviewers that it was probably overdone in the context of this story.The outline of the story is very simple, and I actually wish that I hadn't read the book jacket but will not reveal anything here that the publisher has not revealed in the promotional material. (However, if you have already decided to purchase the book and don't know the plotline, you might want to skip this paragraph and let the story develop as you read it.) A brilliant former high-ranking SAS officer with a detailed knowledge of military tactics defects to a Middle Eastern terrorist group and quickly rises to a position of importance as one of its key strategists. He devises a plan to obtain a nuclear submarine (which are almost impossible to locate and track while submerged if manned by a patient well trained crew); his goal is to create enough havoc (while minimizing the loss of life) so that the United States will withdraw from its activities in the Middle East. Arrayed against him are the Admiral Morgan, the President's National Security Advisor, and the military and intelligence resources of the US g