Cold Choices by Larry Bond is a must read for those who enjoy military fiction and especially submarine operations. This book gets your attention in the early pages and keeps it until the very end.

Cold Choices has stories of courage, political deceit, “cold war” attitudes, stubbornness, pain, leadership, loyalty, and more. The characters and action are lifelike. The reader will quickly find himself identifying with many of the characters. Larry Bonds puts the reader inside the submarine with his vivid descriptions and then inside the minds of the submariners.

While in the processing of mapping an area of the Barents Sean used by the Russians for exercises, the US nuclear sub, Seawolf,  is detected and pursued by the newest Soviet sub Severodvinsk. The commander of the Russian submarine, Aleksey Petrov, is tasked with driving the American sub out of the area. Jerry Mitchell, the commander of Seawolf is trying to get out of the Soviet sub’s path when the two subs collide. As the US sub surfaces with much damage, the Soviet sub sinks to the bottom.

Badly damaged, the Seawolf is heading for a friendly port to get repaired when they find out that the Soviet sub has sunk. Commander Mitchell makes the decision to turn around, find the sunken sub, and lead the Soviet’s to it.

The rescue attempt is complicated by a lack of trust between the two countries, bad weather, communication problems, political posturing, national pride, and many other things.

My compliments to Larry Bond for describing the stresses felt by all involved in the incident and rescue while keeping the language “family friendly” (with only a few exceptions).

I highly recommend this book and give it 5 stars without any hesitation.

Tags: 5 STARS, action, fiction, military