Hide and Seek by Jeff Struecker and Alton Gansky

Kyrgyzstan became an important country when it ceased to be a part of the U.S.S.R. It is a key country in the region and is being courted by Russia and China. There is a U. S. base there, strategic for staging deliveries of men and equipment to Afghanistan. But the country is in turmoil. Protests and riots are evidence of the hatred toward the American presence.

In the midst of the unrest, there is an attempted kidnapping of the daughter of the Kyrgyzstan President. She is temporarily rescued by Army trained Foreign Affairs Officer. The two women are on the run and are in danger.

A special ops team in the area for training is sent on the rescue mission. Their assignment becomes more dangerous when the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan makes it look like the American team has been killed but secretly arranges for their deaths. The special ops team must avoid the riots and the military trained men after them, all the while trying to find and rescue the endangered women.

This is a well written military suspense novel. The story is realistic, the action is fast paced, and the characters are well developed. The special ops team leader is a Christian and the authors described well how his faith relates to his job. His wife is recently pregnant and the pain she experiences when misinformed of her husband's “death” is heart breaking.

The most disturbing part of the novel, for me, was the fact that this is about military action in a foreign nation where all U. S. military presence has been forbidden. Granted, this novel is about a rescue and that made it easier to take. But violating another nation's sovereignty in covert operations, even if it is supposedly for their good, was difficult for me to read about with enjoyment.

Chaplain (Major, Ret) Jeff Struecker is a decorated member of US Army Rangers, the Army’s most elite fighting corps. His personal experiences in Mogadishu, Somalia, were documented in the New York Times best seller and major motion picture Black Hawk Down. During his twenty-two years of active duty, he also fought in war in Panama, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq. Now retired from military service, Struecker currently serves as Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia.

Alton Gansky is a Christy Award-nominated and Angel Award-winning author who writes to stimulate thinking about spiritual matters. He served as a pulpit minister for twenty years and has published nearly thirty books.

B & H Publishing Group, 369 pages.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from The B & B Media Group for the purpose of this review.