Madeline Turner, the first female U.S. President, has already weathered global crises during the first months of her administration. But the balance of power has suddenly shifted dangerously and dramatically in Europe--the Russian government has fallen into the hands of a criminal--and a fearsome, re-emergent bear is on a rampage. Locked into a war of wits and weaponry with the deadly cabal of drug runners and murderers who now rule a one-time empire, Maddy Turner will need capable allies beside her--like Air Force legend Matt Pontowski, who will become the beleaguered Commander-in-Chief's confidant, friend, and more. An explosive confrontation is coming that could reshape the face of the world--and the fate of President Turner herself.

When fear becomes a weapon...When a few good men go bad...America will be consumed by the fire that burns within.From Publishers WeeklyMixing high- and low-tech espionage, Air Force missions and politics into a credible and exciting plot with attractive characters and breakneck action, Herman's latest (after Power Curve, 1997) is a sure winner. When a Sudanese terrorist group is discovered to be almost capable of dispersing the Ebola virus ("the poor man's atomic bomb"), two Americans are sent on a secret B-2 mission to destroy the underground Sudanese lab?then are captured, tortured and almost certainly doomed. At the same time, in Missouri, Bradley Jefferson, an outstanding, African American Muslim Air Force captain, is charged with having passed mission details to the enemy. Trial lawyer and Air Force Reservist Hank Sutherland is recalled to active duty to prosecute Jefferson and is almost immediately plunged into a complex swirl of suspicious characters and conflicting motives. Adding nightclub strippers, FBI agents, a ruthless demagogue with sights on the presidency and a mysterious presidential adviser with a big, smart computer at his disposal, Herman keeps all of his plots spinning and readers of military adventure on the edge of their seats. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalLook for major advertising for this new thriller from Herman, a member of the USAF for 21 years and author of the successful Power Curve (LJ 4/15/97). Here, a court martial after the crash of a B-2 bomber gets complicated.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

America is caught in the lethal center of an unwinnable two-front war -- in this gripping and explosive thriller from the master of geopolitical intrigue...The war on terrorism has borne bitter fruit, as the radical Islamic states forge an unholy alliance with a surging China, aiming for total control of the Middle East's vast oil reserves and the strategic Strait of Malacca. As a new axis of world power simultaneously launches a devastating double-pronged conflict -- one a depleted American military cannot possibly win -- President Maddy Turner, the first woman ever to occupy the Oval Office, must react swiftly to a global crisis of world-altering proportions. And so she turns to the only man she can trust in the brutal snake pit of Beltway politics: Brigadier General Matt Pontowski. A brilliant flyer and military tactician, and the intimate confidant of the most powerful woman on Earth, he must now undertake a mission at once bold and extraordinary -- and potentially...

Call to Duty is a novel of epic scope and breathtaking adventure that races at mach speed between two deadly wars -- one waged five decades ago against a madman with dreams of world domination, the other to be fought tomorrow against well-armed dealers in poison and death. For there are times that call for swift, decisive action -- as unforeseen global events threaten to shatter an uncertain peace. There are times that test the mettle of even the most courageous of men and women -- as four young Americans taken captive by a power-hungry Asian drug lord. And now, a beleaguered Commander-in-Chief -- beset upon by internal political turmoil and terrifying international intrigues -- must find guidance and strength in his own heroic past. Then he must act.For these are certain times.

Colonel Anthony "Muddy" Waters has a mission: to mold a company of poorly trained rogues and misfits into heroes. His assignment is one that no other officer in the United States Air Force would touch. But Waters has a fabled stubbornness and dedication unparalleled in the armed services ... and the will to make the impossible possible.The Warbirds is the breakthrough novel that captures the saga of the F-4 Phantom and the men who made it a legend: like "Muddy" Waters, who must transform the men and women under his command — Including a superbly talented pilot but loose cannon named Jack Locke-into a fighting force to be reckoned with. Because their country could ask them at any time to fly their F-4s into the eye of the firestorm, to face an overwhelming enemy and brave the flames of hell itself without question and with no support.Tomorrow that call will come.And there will be no turning backwhen the heavens explode.

A shrewd, efficient and popular politician, Madeline O'Keith Turner was eminently qualified to fulfill he duties as America's first woman Vice President. But Fate elevated her to Commander-in-Chief. . .on the eve of her nation's most devastating modern crisis.From her first day in the Oval Office, Maddie Turner has had to deal with bitter challenges from Congress and duplicity from within the ranks of the Cabinet she inherited from her late predecessor. Now catastrophe is brewing in the East China Sea. Chinese and Japanese fleets are set to collide in the biggest naval engagement since World War Two. And a single false step could result in Turner's impeachment. . .or, worse still, in nuclear war. An untried leader with enemies on all sides must now reach out to her one true ally: National Security Advisor General Robert Bender, a loyal soldier determined to teach his president in record time everything he knows about swift, decisive action and bare-knuckling battling. ....

There is a new order to the world. The first female President of the United States sits in the White House. Monster corporations wield the real global power And all the old rules have been changed.A military functionary toiling in bureaucratic tedium, Lt. Colonel Mike Stuart is resigned to serving his country in his own quiet way. But when he dutifully reports an unusual pattern of oil tanker movements to his superiors, his ordinary life starts spinning dangerously out of control. Suddenly powerful forces are closing in on one inconspicuous man, threatening to brutally change the political face of a hemisphere, bring a government down in flames and chaos...and take the life of America's President. Called upon to defend his nation in ways he never imagined, Mike Stuart's sole chance for success -- and survival -- is to become something he has never been: a warrior.Amazon.com ReviewHow far would a Texas tycoon go to corner the market on the biggest undiscovered oil field in the world? Is there anything L.J. Ellis, the CEO of RayTex Oil, wouldn't do to get a jump start on the competition? Hardly anything, as it turns out, especially when the treasure's practically in her backyard. All it will take for the beautiful, sexy, ruthless petroleum queen to turn her company's fortunes around is a little revolution, just big enough to unseat Fidel Castro and turn Cuba's untapped reserves into liquid gold. That's the setup for this Clancy-like techno-thriller. But what might have been a tidy little mystery of international intrigue and corporate chicanery almost gets lost in all the other scenarios author Richard Herman lays out, especially the antics of a bunch of over-the-hill aviators who finally get a chance to relive their glory days and climb back into the cockpits of their fighter planes to save the day for Old Glory. One of them happens to be the father of Mike Stuart, a military bureaucrat charged with assessing the nation's petroleum reserves who notices an anomaly in the movement of oil tankers. Although Mike is ostensibly Herman's hero, he's too involved in a custody dispute with his ex-wife, a new love affair, and counting the days until he puts in his retirement papers to notice that there's a pattern behind all the seemingly random attacks on his life, and that they all tie in to RayTex. The author is at the top of his form when it comes to aeronautics and military strategy. Although he presents the reader with some interesting characters, many of whom will be familiar to fans of Herman's previous books (Warbirds, Against All Enemies, Edge of Honor), the real stars of this book are the airplanes. --Jane AdamsFrom Publishers WeeklyLike the Texas oil drillers at the heart of the story, Herman's latest military thriller is big and brawny and blustery--showing bulge around the middle, but still carrying its weight reasonably well. RayTex Oil, a small but feisty company out of Dallas, believes it has found a huge oil field off the Cuban coast. The company, however, knows the only way it can stake a claim and drill is if it can topple Fidel Castro and install a government that will cut a deal. Foiling RayTex's plans is Pentagon-based air force fuel expert Lt. Col. Michael Stuart, who gets suspicious after spotting unusual movements of oil exploration ships. He's nonetheless baffled--the Cuban coast has never been considered a potential oil site--until his boss tries to demote him, he is framed for murder and a hired killer tracks him down. He's got personal problems, too: his girlfriend thinks he's a wimp for not standing up to his ex-wife, and his father, hard-nosed former fighter pilot William "Shanker" Stuart, never misses an opportunity to imply how disappointed he is in his son. While Stuart struggles to understand what's happening, RayTex--led by sexy businesswoman L.J. Ellis--is busy fomenting revolution in Havana and deceiving the U.S. government about its intentions. Herman (Edge of Honor, etc.), a retired air force officer, juggles one too many subplots, yet rallies for an exciting finish on the ground and in the skies above Cuba. Both the behavior of Ellis (a tad too promiscuous for a business titan) and Stuart (a bit lily-livered) strain credibility, but Herman's latest has enough thrills and adventure to satisfy his fans. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

The twin specters of starvation and genocide stalk the southern Sudan when the tyrannical regime in Khartoum unleashes the Janjaweed, horseback-mounted Baggara tribesmen, on the defenseless Dinka and Nuer tribes. The prize is control of the oil reserves lying beneath tribal lands, and a weary United Nations responds with a half-hearted attempt riddled with corruption to rescue a beleaguered people. The United States sends six aging Air Force C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft and 165 personnel to support the UN peacekeepers and fly relief into the heart of the war-torn land. But age-old hatreds cannot be suppressed and the Janjaweed cause one of the C-130s to crash, killing the crew and commander of the US detachment. The UN peacekeepers are withdrawing when the newly appointed commander of the C-130 unit arrives. His unit’s morale is in the dirt and the situation chaotic. Appalled by the slaughter he witnesses, he becomes a driven man, determined to save the Nuer and Dinka tribesmen. He makes an unlikely ally, the French commander of the peacekeeping force who was born Senegalese. The two men are military anachronisms, throwbacks to an earlier age. But both know how to fight — one in the air, the other on the ground — and fight they will. The situation spins out of control and becomes a battle of personal survival where defeat will result in genocide.

Taking on a less-than-thrilling assignment to get out of the office, legendary pilot Colonel Matt Pontowski leads a lame-duck squadron over the war-torn skies of China, where an unchecked civil war is spreading throughout the Pacific Rim. Reprint.From Publishers WeeklyThe A-10 tank-killer aircraft, so effective during Desert Storm, is nicknamed the "Warthog" in affectionate recognition of its stubby but powerful lines. Herman's latest tribute to Air Force machismo (after Force of Eagles ) takes an A-10 squadron into Southeast Asia in the near future, as civil war erupts in China. Colonel Matt Pontkowski, grandson of a former U.S. President and a featured player in earlier Herman novels, takes command of the motley but earnest group common to this genre, including beautiful and skilled female pilot Skeeter Ashton and a band of resourceful scavengers known as "The Junk Yard Dogs." At the same time, the Chinese rebel leader has rescued a Rambo-like Hawaiian MIA from a Vietnamese prison; joined by a young Chinese woman with ESP, they launch their own plan to save China from succumbing to a brutal military dictatorship. The large but stereotyped cast of characters only just manages to stay in control of the situation and one another; particularly unfortunate is the author's assumption that unattached men and women thrown together in crisis will necessarily fall in love. Herman's speculations about possible future conflicts are interesting but unsurprising, while his prose is serviceable but forgettable, weakened by reminders of his previous books and hints of more to come. Overall, this is a weak entry that matches the Warthog's inelegance but not its power; meanwhile, the workhorse of Desert Storm awaits a more imaginative champion. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalThe last of a long line of military men, Pentagon desk jockey Col. Matt Pentowski wangles his way to command of the 303rd Air Force Squadron, flying A-10 Warthogs. Upon his arrival, Pentowski must choose between deactivating the 303rd or volunteering for a clandestine operation, code-named Dark Wing. His mission is to provide air support for Chinese rebels battling the Communist government in Beijing. Along with his friends Tango, Ripper, Maggot, and the Junkyard Dogs, he's in his element in a Warthog cockpit. At the same time, he must fight political battles with the rebels, his superiors, and Washington, D.C. The Warthogs finally turn the tide of battle, forcing Beijing to negotiate a peace with the rebels. Herman captures Air Force life and combat tactics well, as he takes the reader through the crisis from several characters' viewpoints. He commands the reader's attention until the last page. A high flier that is highly recommended for all fiction collections.Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist. P.L., MetamoraCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gus Tyler is a man under a microscope--and the world is watching! He may be a hero. He may be a scapegoat. He stands before the International Criminal Court in The Hague accused of war crimes committed on the infamous Highway of Death during the Gulf War of 1991. The U.S. is focused on the crisis in Asia as China moves aggressively against Taiwan and desperately needs European help. France seizes the chance to challenge the U.S. and forge an alliance with China. And Gus Tyler is trapped in a geopolitical storm. Tyler faces a powerful prosecutor as the international press trumpets his guilt. But a determined lawyer and Tyler's own son, a tough Air Force officer, have a different plan. For Gus Tyler, the search for justice will lead from a pampered Western Europe to a far place--the wild and lawless slaughterhouse of the Southern Sudan.