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Summary
Summary
W.E.B. Griffin first burst upon the national scene with his Brotherhood of War series of the U.S. Army. In 1988, he published the last Brotherhood novel, The Aviators, yet there was always one more story he wanted to tell-and here it is. Craig Lowell, Sandy Felter, Jack Portet, Geoff Craig, Robert Bellmon, George Washington "Father" Lunsford, Master Sergeant Doubting Thomas-they're all back, with the women who love them, in the crackling new novel Special Ops. In November 1964, Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara went to the Congo with two hundred men, intent on making it his first step in taking over Africa and South America. He failed, thanks in large part to the efforts of an intrepid band of Green Berets. Licking his wounds, he retreated to Cuba to recruit more men and try the same thing in Bolivia. He failed there, too. In fact, he died there, and thus, despite his incompetence, became a glorious martyr to the cause. But who was trying to kill him, really'...and who was trying to keep him alive? There, Griffin has some surprises up his sleeve, and as he takes us through the twists and turns of Special Ops, he spins a story of devilish cunning and thrilling adventure.
Author Notes
W. E. B. Griffin is one of eight pseudonyms used by William E. Butterworth III, who was born in Newark, New Jersey on November 10, 1929. He enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private in 1946 and was assigned to the Army of Occupation in Germany. He left the service in 1947 but was recalled to active duty in 1951 because of the Korean War. After leaving the service for the second time, he remained in Korea as a combat correspondent. He was later appointed chief of the publications division of the Signal Aviation Test and Support Activity at the Army Aviation Center in Fort Rucker, Alabama. He received the Brigadier General Robert L. Dening Memorial Distinguished Service Award of the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association in 1991 and the Veterans of Foreign Wars News Media Award in 1999.
He wrote more than 200 books including the Brotherhood of War series, The Corps series, Badge of Honor series, Honor Bound series, Presidential Agent series, Men at War series, and A Clandestine Operations Novel series. Under his own name, he wrote 12 sequels in the 1970s to Richard Hooker's book M*A*S*H. His other pen names included Alex Baldwin, Webb Beech, and Walter E. Blake. He wrote over 20 books with his son William E. Butterworth IV. He received the Alabama Author's Award in 1982 from the Alabama Library Association. He died on February 12, 2019 at the age of 89.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Newly initiated readers of Griffin (The Fighting Agents) will find the latest in the Brotherhood of War series strongly reminiscent of modern American military classics From Here to Eternity and The Winds of War. Longtime Griffin faithful, eager since 1988's The Aviators for the next BOW installment, will deem this '60s action drama well worth the wait. Fresh from disobeying orders on a rescue mission to the Congo in November 1964 (and receiving two medals for his heroic efforts), former airline pilotDnow Green Beret Sgt.DJack Portet is promoted to lieutenant and assigned to Top Secret Special Operations under Col. Sanford T. Felter, adviser to the president. CIA sources report that Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara is going to the Congo to establish a major Communist foothold in Africa, before moving on to South America. LBJ, with counsel from Felter, decides that it would be better politics to humiliate Guevara in the Congo than to elevate him to martyr status by killing him. To that end, Portet, Felton and Maj. George Washington "Father" Lunsford persuade Joseph Mobutu, president of the Republic of the Congo, to allow a crack unit of African-American Green Berets, all fluent in Swahili, to carry out the assignment. The Special Ops manage to chase Che out of Africa only to see him try to gain power in Bolivia. His writing enriched by new, fully developed characters, Griffin also reprises BOW favorites Craig Lowell, Robert Bellmon, Geoff Craig and William "Doubting" Thomas as he renders an intricately layered, epic novel of the fascinating machinations of international politics and the life and passions of the men who make it happen. Given Griffin's track record with military adventureDhe launched the Lieutenants of the Brotherhood in 1982Dthe audience for this rouser is ready and waiting. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
For readers who are counting, this is Griffin's thirty-first book. Previous ones have included such popular titles as Brotherhood of War (1982), Honor Bound (1994), The Corps (1990), Badge of Honor (1992), and Men at War (2000). Now comes Special Ops, the ninth Brotherhood of War novel, and it's filled with characters from Griffin's other works. The story is set in 1964 and involves the real-life Che Guevara, the Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary leader who was Fidel Castro's chief lieutenant in the Cuban revolution. Guevara, with the help of 200 soldiers, wants to overthrow the government of the Congo and ultimately all the governments in Africa and South America. He fails, returns to Cuba, recruits more mercenaries, tries to take over Bolivia, fails again, and dies there under mysterious circumstances. Griffin's characters include, as always, Green Berets, beautiful women, good guys, and bad guys--all tough talkers and heavy drinkers. One of Griffin's more interesting features is his inclusion of the texts of many "top secret" memos, most of them from the CIA to the president. The result is the kind of sophisticated entertainment typical of Griffin, and his many fans won't be disappointed. --George Cohen
Kirkus Review
Mammoth, Clancy-sized novel, ninth in the Brotherhood of War series by immensely canny superseller Griffin (Secret Honor, 2000, etc). Previously, in this and other multivolume sagas, Griffin has covered encyclopedic aspects of US military history, as well as the birth of OSS and US spycraft. Now he takes on the political passions of the 1960s, chronicling US Special Ops successful effort to undermine Che Guevaras hopes of spreading revolution throughout Africa and South America. For this massive operation, Griffin brings back all the Brotherhood regulars: Craig Lowell, Geoff Craig, Master Sergeant doubting Thomas, Robert Bellmon, George Washington Father Lunsford, Sandy Felter, et al. First, the President orders Lowells Operation Dragon Rouge to rescue 1,600 white people, including the staff of the US consulate and 60 Americans, held captive in Stanleyville, Republic of Congo, by Joseph Olengas rebel Simbas, who threaten to kill two or more hostages per day if Olenga doesnt get his way. As Lowell leads the strike staff of Green Berets, Guevara addresses the United Nations General Assembly to great applause, then goes back to plotting takeovers in Africa and Central and South America. Often telling his story through top-secret letters among the White House, the CIA, and other groups, Griffins smarts about how undercover ops are carried out blister the pages with irony and a towering wisdom as he holds each richly satisfied fan in the palm of his hand. Eventually, Guevara is run to ground in Bolivia. The CIA wants to ship him back to Argentina, but Bolivias president wont give up the prisonerand there the story ends, as foredoomed, with the famous image of Guevaras wounded corpse stretched out on a table. Gripping indeed, far more readable than Clancy, and as a bonus we get the heroes love lives limned in hugely amusing detail. Griffin fans will dance with delight.
Library Journal Review
The extremely prolific Griffin has returned to the "Brotherhood of War" series, which began nine books (e.g., The Aviators) and several other series ago. In 1964, Cuba's Fidel Castro tried to export communism to Africa under the leadership of the legendary Che Guevera, and Special Ops details the efforts of the U.S. military and the CIA to stop him. With the world's attention focused on Vietnam and Europe, the deadly fighting in some of the world's most remote and primitive places went unnoticed. Griffin writes from the military perspective, and while it helps to enjoy his unique style and to be familiar with characters from the preceding books (many of whom are featured here), neither is necessary. This is an exciting, intriguing, and fast-paced novel about an often-ignored period in our recent history. For general collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/00.]DRobert Conroy, Warren, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
