Upriver by Martin Roy Hill
Pages: 245
Published: 1 October 2022
The explosion of an IED allows the SEALs, suspected of killing a fellow commando, to escape and flee up the Tigris River in a stolen Navy patrol boat. Schag pursues the SEALs in another boat assisted by an Army criminal investigator, a vengeful Iraqi interpreter, and a hostile Navy boat crew. Facing danger at each bend in the river, Schag and his companions endure ambushes, firefights, and friendly fire as he tries to discover the secret that lures the SEALs straight into the dark heart of an ISIS-made hell on earth.
What seems like the simplest of tasks is made a lot tougher when thanks to an ISIS (the local Islamic terrorist group) explosive device; the prisoner’s make their escape on a stolen Navy river boat and head off upriver.
Teaming up with a member of the Army CID, an unhelpful patrol boat crew and a shifty Iraqi interpreter, Schag sets off into hostile country to track down the fugitives and bring them to justice.
Why have the hunted due headed into territory infested with extremists rather then make a run for the border? Schag is about to find out
The author has written a nicely executed plot filled with interesting characters that, whilst heading towards the resolution of the main objective, has time to wander off on to sub-plots that complement the rest of the story.
Schag’s relationships with his hastily assembled crew are allowed to develop and grow throughout the book. In the beginning there is a degree of friction that comes with working with strangers especially in a combat zone.
Other related topics are covered sensitively by the author and he raises points on friendly fire, racism, mistrust and family commitments.
The story is fast paced and doesn’t get bogged down with all of the extraneous military detail that seems to happen in a lot of books of this type. We get what we need to know about the hardware to maintain the realistic feel without it getting distracting.
Just like real forays into war zones, nobody is ever safe and the author doesn’t allow the reader to get complacent about their favourite characters.
This is the third book in the Linus Schag NCIS Thriller series but is a perfectly self-contained story that does not require the reader to have any prior knowledge of the characters or the setting.
What I liked most about this was the pace of the plot, the interaction between the members of Schag’s team and also the portrayal of the escaped SEALs and their struggle to escape both Schag and the ISIS terrorists as they made their way upriver.
The sub-plot involving the Iraqi interpreter and the trip to Mosul was also a stand out feature for me that brought a further element of reality to the whole thing.
Overall this was hard to put down and difficult to fault. It’s given me a desire to go back and read books 1 and 2.
Twitter @MartinRoyHill
Martin joined the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve when he was 19, the same year he sold his first published piece to Reader's Digest. He spent a total of 13 years as a Coastguardsman, in two tours, involved in small boat search and rescue, emergency medical response, port security, and maritime law enforcement.
In between those tours, he served in a counter-insurgency unit in the U.S. Navy Reserve. After a final stint of Coast Guard active duty following the 9/11 attacks, Martin was offered a commission as a medical service corps officer in a component of the California National Guard, where he trained combat medics for Iraq and Afghanistan. Later, Martin converted to the military police, retiring in 2016 as a major and executive officer of an MP unit.
Martin also served as a wilderness medic and operations sergeant with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department Wilderness Search and Rescue Detail, where he was cross trained as a tactical (SWAT) medic. Martin also spent several years as a medic and security specialist with a federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team.
Martin received a bachelor's degree in journalism from CSU Dominguez Hills, and spent more than 20 years as a writer and editor for newspapers and magazines. His investigative reporting earned him numerous journalism honors, including two William Allen White Awards. His stories were included in three of the Investigative Reporters and Editors' annual compilations of the best investigative reporting. He also worked as a freelance correspondent for LIFE and Newsweek.
After serving on active duty following the 9/11 attacks, Martin switched careers, becoming a U.S. Navy analyst in combat casualty care, a position he held for 16 years.
Between his military, public safety, and journalism careers, Martin experienced many adventures. In the Coast Guard, he participated in dozens of rescues, chased Russian spy ships and smugglers, protected dignitaries, and once was nearly lost at sea in a storm. In the Navy, he was assigned to liaison with a USCG patrol boat during war games, and ended up participating in what at the time was the largest drug bust in U.S. history.
He's been known to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, and once followed a migrant trail from the U.S. into Mexico (at that country's request) to locate the remains of a woman who died along the trail so the smuggler leading her group could be prosecuted for her death. As a journalist, he covered disasters, air crashes, wild fires, as well as national and international leaders.
Martin's freelance credits include Reader's Digest, LIFE, Newsweek, Omni, American History, Writer’s Digest, Coast Guard Magazine, Retired Officer Magazine, The Compass, Aviation History, Mother Jones, the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times Sunday Opinion, and Travel sections, and many more. He was a lead contributor to the 1995 WWII anthology, "From Pearl Harbor to Nagasaki: America at War," published by the Retired Officer Association, and a contributor to the 2013 American Civil War anthology "Gettysburg: Three Days that Saved the United States," published by I-5 Publishing.
Martin's background plays a significant role in his writing, which many reviewers have noted has a sense of realism not often found in fiction. His first book, DUTY, a collection of short stories centered around national service, was named the 2012 Best Short Story Anthology/Collection by the San Diego Book Awards Association. His novel, The Butcher's Bill, received the Best Mystery/Suspense Novel of 2017 from the Best Independent Book Awards, the Clue Award for Best Suspense Thriller from the Chanticleer International Book Awards, the Silver Medal for Thrillers from the Readers Favorite Book Awards, and the award for Adult Fiction from the 2018 California Author Project.
Besides his novels, Martin's short stories have appeared in such publications as Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, ALT HIST: The Journal of Historical Fiction and Alternative History, Mystery Weekly Magazine, Crimson Streets, Nebula Rift, Devolution Z, and others.
Martin is a professional member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers.
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