Overview

A top-ten bestselling author & the unrivalled master of the action thriller. An unconquerable fortress, the US Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier Thomas Jefferson is the most powerful nuclear-powered warship in the world, stationed in the Arabian Sea to preserve the peace and Western allied interests. But the unthinkable occurs when the billion-dollar ship is destroyed in what appears to be a nuclear accident - it is the greatest peacetime disaster in US history. Whilst America mourns for the lives of the crew, Intelligence reports begin to suggest that the cause of the tragedy may be a rogue ex-Soviet submarine, and Admiral Arnold Morgan is called in to investigate. But no one knows who is on board, where it came from, or how it came within striking range of the Thomas Jefferson unnoticed. Worse still, no ones knows where it is or if it will strike again. Political tensions mount as Middle Eastern connections are suspected, and a deadly chase ensues when a victim's brother seeks his revenge on the killers...

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9780099225621

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An absolutely marvellous thriller, one of the best things of its time I have read in years. * Jack Higgins * Watch out for Robinson. He is in the same league as Clancy. * Birmingham Post * Robinson rules the waves -- matches Clancy at his best. * Northern Echo *

When one of America's prized Nimitz Class carriers is lost with all hands and planes while on station in the Arabian Sea, Washington publicly accepts the catastrophe as a tragic mishap and secretly organizes an all-out hunt to bring those responsible to justice. In mid-2002, the USS Thomas Jefferson suddenly vanishes from the radar screens of the warships escorting it on a routine but dangerous patrol near the Persian Gulf. Aftershocks and radioactivity indicate that a nuclear blast has occurred. Appalled at the apparent vulnerability of the nation's most formidable weapon, the White House lets it be known that the giant vessel succumbed to an accidental detonation. Behind the scenes, however, the military/political complex mobilizes its intelligence-gathering resources to ascertain what really happened. Heading the probe is Lt. Cdr. Billy Baldridge, a world-class physicist whose brother was among the 6,000 to go down with the Jefferson. Proceeding from the premise that an inadvertent explosion was impossible, he soon determines that the carrier was atomized by a nuclear-tipped torpedo fired from a submarine. Although virtually all the world's undersea flotilla can be accounted for, the US President orders a clandestine assault on the three Kilo Class subs in drydock at Bandar Abbas, which Iran has acquired from the former USSR. In the meantime, Baldridge's to-the-ends-of-the-earth inquiries suggest the guilty party may be a matchless Israeli naval officer named Benjamin Adnam, now at the helm of a Russian sub once presumed lost in the Aegean. Adnam, it turns out, was an Iraqi plant on a doomsday mission on behalf of Saddam Hussein. While the West's operatives solve the basic puzzle, they must still deal with the intrepid Adnam and his crew, who remain at large with nuclear ordnance that threatens the mammoth flattops on which America and the world rely to keep the peace. A hell-and-high-water technothriller, and an impressive debut from British journalist Robinson. (Kirkus Reviews)

The inconceivable happens when a seemingly impregnable nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Thomas Jefferson disappears off the radar screens in what appears to be a nuclear accident. Careful consideration quickly makes the US Navy realize that a hostile submarine is responsible. The race is on to find and destroy the sub before its vile act is repeated. Patrick has written a very clever book showing the how governments must cooperate if they are to police a peaceful world. Lots of technical jargon but with a layman's touch. Recommended. (Kirkus UK)

An absolutely marvellous thriller, one of the best things of its time I have read in years. Jack Higgins Watch out for Robinson. He is in the same league as Clancy. Birmingham Post Robinson rules the waves -- matches Clancy at his best. Northern Echo

Author Information

PATRICK ROBINSON is the author of six previous international bestselling thrillers: Nimitz Class, Kilo Class, H. M. S. Unseen, Seawolf, The Shark Mutiny, Barracuda 945 and, most recently, Scimitar SL-2. He is also the author of several non-fiction bestsellers including True Blue (with Dan Topolski) and Born to Win. He is the co-author with Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward of One Hundred Days.

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