The Mercenaries: Thunderkill

We got trouble -- right here in Khiva city. With a capital "T" and that rhymes with "treachery". Peter Telep, wearing his P.W. Storm hat, brings back Michael "Mad Dog" Hertzog and his Blood Diamonds team, now joined by a voluptuous sinister beauty. Mad Dog's latest contract -- code name Thunderkill -- is a life-saving mission to Uzbekistan's ancient city of Khiva. The city's ambiance is evoked by its Byzantine architecture complete with minarets, narrow winding streets, and elaborate mosaic walls. Initially, Telep is waxing formulaic -- bigger-than-life good guys performing over-the-top antics. He's remembered us military buffs too. All the latest big boy toys -- including two small, partially dismantled choppers stuffed precariously into the C-130J that delivered the team to Uzbekistan. It's rumored that the DOD Procurement Office for Weapons Systems check with Telep each fiscal year prior to compiling a shopping list and finalizing their budget. But I digress. Simply put, Khiva's a trap -- a set up to assassinate a pro-western head-of-state, embarrass the U.S., and point to Mad Dog and his team as the killers. Aw, Gee! Did I go too far here? Maybe? Maybe not. Because, right here, crafty Peter Telep executes a nifty oblique story shift into a tense, action-packed study of mercenaries experiencing a bad day at the office. Once the fog of deceit and the smoke of battle lifts, the team's survival in Uzbekistan becomes change-your-skivvies dicey. How does a "flagless" team, stranded in a landlocked county with no portfolio, "get the hell outta Dodge"? Telep now takes us into the dark side of life as a mercenary -- the overwhelmingly bleak future of soldiers-of-fortune who've been set up and hung out to ... die. Telep gives us a quick peek inside his Merc-101 manual. Full of such chestnuts as; Exploit the local terrain and the locals... shortest distance to nearest safe haven... stick together or split up... identify outside assets that can be tapped using cash, blackmail, force, or all the above, etc. Can perseverance, consolidated combat experience, and a hefty dollop of luck carry the day? In the second book of his Mercenaries series Telep offers up his answer -- riddled with unexpected twist, turns, and glitches -- snick, snick. Fair warning; the easy-fix-to-body-count ratio is astronomical! So, for that next bad day at the office, ditch the aspirin, mix up a batch of bourbon manhattans, heavy on the vermouth -- no cherry, and then kick back with Thunderkill. Your day will get better with each page.