Exit Plan - Larry Bond

Place. The Persian Gulf coast, Bushehr province of the Islamic Republic of Iran, between Kangan and Taheri.
Time. April 2013.
The Situation. Bad and going to get worse.

Exit Plan is the third book to feature a certain Lt Commander Jerry Mitchell. This may be a series in the making, though the books are not listed as such on a particular site I frequently visit for such information.

This story is set in the world of today. An operation to extract persons and information from a hostile country goes wrong. The SEAL team are stranded with their intended escaping peoples and now have to rapidly improvise an alternative escape plan whilst being hunted by a very determined opponent.

All is not going as well as it should with the Iranian nuclear enrichment plant. It is taking far more time than was anticipated for to get the material necessary to make nuclear fuel and to be able to obtain weapons grade material.

They are awaiting the return of the twelfth imam and the arrival of God to institute his paradise on Earth where the good will be rewarded and the evil punished. One possible way to bring this about is to destroy their main enemy Israel, and also that Great Satan, America. Having nuclear weapons would be an advantage, but they haven't got them yet.

So a deception plan is worked out to bring about the hoped for war, but some of their own, who are not aware of the plan, are not convinced that their nation is correct anyway and have been in contact with the Americans and want to defect with vital information. The action in this story all takes place in a rather short space of time. The story begins in February 2013 but most of the action takes place
in a few short days in April 2013.

This is a story that has a slow, low key start but the tension and actions start to bite really soon. What starts off as a rather low key, routine mission begins to go wrong almost from the first moment and starts to spiral out of control as more assets are drawn into the events from both sides. It's all very well with modern communications for the rear man to try and direct every aspect of a mission. Micro managing is what some front line troops call it when they are being polite. When they are not polite, I would not be allowed to print. But no matter what "The Man" wants, the actual policy maker is the man on the ground. It's his life that is on the line. The action sweeps between the hunted and the hunters as this is a story told in third person perspective. You, the reader, are given the global overview of all the actions where the participants only see their particular bits and how the actions of others affect them.

It's an old adage that no plan survives contact with the enemy, and also that if your plan is going swimmingly, then something’s wrong, and so it happens in this story. What should have been a simple mission is firstly complicated by the State Department, who do not want an American Nuclear Submarine so close to the hostile Iranian shore. If it is discovered it could lead to a diplomatic incident if not a war. As a consequence a mini sub, that is experimental and has several safety issues has to make a far longer underwater journey and suffers a catastrophic failure with the death of one person.

But SEALS are motivated to win despite the odds being against them. So the mission has to continue. A wise military planner will try to envisage all the things that can go wrong and try to anticipate them and if the do come about, will have an alternative to deal with the problem. There's nothing worse that having your plan fail and not knowing what to do about it. That's a way for disaster and death.

This isn't about "Gung Ho" heroics and military posturing. This isn't trying to be a story where all Americans are paragons of virtue and all Iranians are Islamic fanatics. Fanatics do seem to crop up in our news stories rather frequently but here we have some persons who are just that, persons. If they were real we might actually like them. Some we definitely wouldn't like but any fanatic can be like that. For some, religion is just the excuse though they do not state that.

The intelligence game is one that can lead to ulcers. The personnel tend to be rather paranoids, always on the lookout for false information being fed to them. It's rather too easy to second guess yourself into a problem. Are you seeing what is there or what you want to see? It does appear to be true that a country tends to believe what they have struggled to find out rather than anything they have been given. Espionage operations is not really a part of this story though it does have its part to play.

This isn't a story that is about hi-tec gadgets, though they do make an appearance, but rather is about people. People who come from very different cultures but are placed together in a very stressful situation. They have to learn to work together for their very lives. They may not like each other but they have to cooperate.

The characters in this story do come over as people. They are not just stereotypes and cardboard cut outs put there to fill up the empty spaces. The motives and actions do come over as very realistic. We can understand and even sympathise with the persons involved in the actions, even those who are supposed to be the enemy.

The group dynamic is also very interesting. You have four SEALS, who are very mission orientated, but are somewhat upset that one team member has already been killed and they could not recover his body. There is a naval officer who was in command of the mini sub when the accident happened, so he isn’t trained to their level and is believed to be at fault, though this is without foundation. Then there are the two Iranians, a revolutionary guard captain and his pregnant wife. He has a slightly derogatory attitude because of the loss of the mini sub. He resents any of what might be termed "normal western courtesy" towards his wife. She is a physics doctor and is the main reason for the defection. She has much information that the west needs. She has been supplying information for a long period but now has something that is too important to try the normal smuggling rout. She has been aware of the paranoid suspicion all around her and fears that she may well be suspected. The fate of any such person is not one that is pleasant to contemplate.

There isn't any sort of sexual content, adding that would have ruined the story. It just wouldn't fit. There is no gratuitous violence though there are places where such could have been inserted but again that would have detracted from the main story line. We do have some combat involved in this story but it isn't gratuitous rather it's a necessary part of the story. This isn't about glorifying combat and it’s not banging the drum to state that the Americans are best. True it’s written by an American for the mainly American market. I'm not certain that you could swap identities around to make the players French or British. It just wouldn't feel right.

This story has the correct 'feel' about the military aspects. This is the result of good research and the help of others. The story does appear rather topical but just how accurate it might be, we will have to wait and see. Generally you never really know if a country has something until it goes "bang". Certainly the Iranian nuclear programme does seem to be causing a certain amount of consternation in some circles. I am not prepared to comment on the "Right" of the Iranians to have nuclear power and possible nuclear arms. A review of a book is not the place for such.

This book has a map of the area involved in the story at the front and a glossary of terms and acronyms at the end, to help people understand some of the technical aspects. This is very useful as any organisation uses a form of shorthand to describe various items among themselves. This can be hard for anybody else, especially civilians, to understand what they are talking about.

This is an entertaining story to read. I find that it soon starts to get rather gripping and you keep reading as you want to know what happens next. That is the sign of a good story. The writer has treated the Islamic faith with respect. It certainly isn’t a Muslim bashing sort of story. In fact after reading this I did some further reading on the Islamic faith and gained a greater degree of understanding. I may not agree with them but I do understand better.

Getting hold of a copy.
This 412 page hardcover book was only published in May 2012 so you may be able to find copies in some high street sellers though I haven't checked that.
Amazon does have copies listed at £24.29 from the RRP of £26.99.
Copies may be obtained from Amazon sellers from £10.94. Not available yet in paperback, audio or Kindle versions.

So if you do like a good adventure story then you probably will like this. I certainly recommend it.