Raptor 6 by Ronie Kendig

Captain Dean Watters heads Raptor Six, a Special Forces team in Afghanistan. Rescuing kidnapped journalists, avoiding Taliban ambushes, it's all in a day's work for them. But when one of their secure military computers shows up in a remote village, Watters knows the level of danger threatening his team has been taken to a new level.

Ten military super-secure computers are missing. If the information on them is retrieved, America's enemies would have a blueprint of America's military intelligence. Watters knows the hackers must be stopped.

Compounding the problem is American born Zahrah Zarrick, working for a Christian nonprofit literacy organization, teaching Afghan children in her mother's native village. Watters' team extracted her after an explosion at her school. Knowing she is in danger, he wants to keep tabs on her. Something is stirred inside him when he talks to her. Something he has tried to keep locked inside for too long.

Zahrah is also an expert on quantum cryptology. The hackers want her and Watters knows his team must protect her. But when they are assigned to another operation, she disappears. Now Watters has double duty – rescue her and stop the hackers from unleashing terror across the globe.

I think this is probably the best of Kendig's novels I have read. The action is great and the character development superb. The romantic development is well done. The suspense at the end is breath taking.

The banter between the team members troubled me. I guess I want special forces to be more professional than these men seem to be. Perhaps it is the way they deal with the pressure of their work. Still, I have less respect for the team than I would if they did not behave so childish at times.

Be prepared, sensitive readers. The mean guys are really mean and will stop at no amount of torture to get their way. Some of it is heart wrenching.

One aspect of Kendig's writing still bothers me. I don't like: “Thud!” “Crack!” “Clang! Thud!” “Whoosh!” “Thwat” and, I mean, really, “BooooOOOOOOOooooom!” (204) I haven't seen something like that since the Batman comics.

I am taking part in a blog tour of this title. You can read other reviews here.

Ronie Kendig is an award-winning, bestselling author who grew up as an Army brat. She and her husband of over twenty years have four children and live in northern Virginia. You can find out more about her and her Rapid-Fire Fiction at www.roniekendig.com.

Shiloh Run Press (Barbour), 352 pages. You can buy a copy here.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book through Litfuse for the purpose of an independent and honest review.