TALES OF THE MODERN NAVY

(The Dan Lenson Novels)

From St. Martin's Press

Welcome to Dan Lenson's home page and to my homage to and memories of the sailors, officers, and families of today's Navy. Some fans have asked me if the order of publication is the same as the flow of time within the books themselves. I guess my answer is: usually, but not always! I try to craft each book so it stands alone. But if you prefer to read a series in order, as many do, I recommend proceeding as follows: The Circle, The Med, The Passage, Tomahawk, The Gulf, China Sea, Black Storm, The Command, and The Threat. All the Lenson books are currently available in paperback from St. Martin's Press, and can be ordered through your bookstore. To order personally inscribed backlist hardcovers, see my First Editions page.

November 2006 . . . THE THREAT

A Gripping Novel of Intrigue and Conspiracy in the West Wing

the threat cover

From inside the White House, Navy commander and Medal of Honor winner Dan Lenson takes on threats to the President and the Nation in David Poyer's ninth gripping thriller about the men and women of today's U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.

After narrowly bringing USS Horn through a nuclear attack off Israel, Lenson, on light duty while recovering from his injuries, is tapped to serve on the military staff of President Robert "Bad Bob" De Bari. Is it an honor? Or the death knell for his career? He's not really sure.

But he'll do his duty nonetheless. Never one to settle for pushing paper, or for following accepted procedure, Lenson plunges into his job as Director of Counternarcotics Interdiction on the National Security Council Staff. His first challege is the Cartel's assassination of the son of the new president of Colombia -- a death the Cartel hopes to pin on the US Air Force. He's barely gotten a lid on this when his staff uncovers a frightening terrorist plot: a dirty bomb, smuggled into America via clandestine drug channels and loaded onto an air freight flight. Meanwhile, an even greater threat is building inside the United States government itself. When Dan becomes the aide carrying the codes to unleash nuclear war, and a deeply unpopular De Bari enrages both the Cartel and nakedly ambitious elements in the US government, Dan himself becomes an unwitting accomplice in a plot to kill the President -- and the only one who can possibly halt it.

Packed with vivid looks inside the White House, the Situation Room, Air Force One, counternarcotics operations, and the military aides and staff who actually exercise the powers of the Presidency in the 21st Century, THE THREAT is a spellbinding yet all too realistic thriller from first page to last.

David Poyer’s novels are ranked among the finest military fiction of our time. Not only for their vividness and authenticity, but for their unflinching probing of the deepest dilemmas of military and personal ethics. Bristling with intrigue, action, and a wealth of inside detail about how the White House actually works, THE THREAT is Dave Poyer at his very best.

ISBN... 0-312-33961-5 Price 24.95 US
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REVIEWS FROM THE CURRENT PRESS:

From Kirkus Reviews:
Dan Lenson becomes the man with the "football"—that ever-present briefcase containing presidential nuclear codes.
Still recovering from the nuclear attack that sank his destroyer (The Command, 2004), Commander Lenson faces formidable challenges as he tries to find his balance in Washington, working closely with a Clintonesque president thoroughly detested by the military establishment. The Navy has assigned Dan to the small anti-drug task force working directly under the National Security Advisor. It's a thankless job, far from the work the officer expected to do—identifying and neutralizing the looming threat of nuclear terrorism. Setting aside his reservations, Lenson steers his motley handful of aides into the narcoturbulence and quickly counters a move by a drug lord that would have undermined a reasonable Colombian administration. But as usual, Lenson's decisive action seems only to have increased the suspicion with which his higher-ups regard him. Things are equally cloudy on the home front. Lenson's beautiful, higher-ranking wife, Blair, spends as much time as Lenson does away from their suburban home. Then Dan is abruptly assigned to the spooky duty of guarding the nuclear football for President De Bari. The shallow, sneaky president, the first Italian-American in the Oval Office, has been cutting deep into the military budget, spending the peace bonus rendered by the collapse of the Soviet Union on domestic priorities. He's also been carrying on his infamous extramarital affairs, and evidence suggests that Lenson's wife may be in presidential target range. Throughout, Poyer inserts cryptic electronic conversations among unknown parties who are steering someone toward an assassination job.
A gloomy story, but Poyer remains the most thoughtful of the military-thriller set and a master of authentic detail.

June 1, 2004...THE COMMAND
A Novel of the Modern US Navy at War against Terror

the command cover

From the bestselling author of The Med, The Circle, The Gulf, The Passage, Tomahawk, China Sea, and Black Storm comes an exciting new novel of the modern US navy at war.

After receiving the Medal of Honor in the Gulf War, Commander Daniel V. Lenson, USN, takes command of a Spruance-class destroyer, USS Horn. Horn will be the first US Navy warship to deploy with a mixed male/female crew . . . with all that implies for a service notoriously resistant to change. Her mission is to enforce UN sanctions in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. But a naval intelligence agent in Bahrain discovers a shadowy group that's plotting to detonate a terrifying new weapon somewhere in the Mediterranean. Horn will be there. But will her divided crew be up to taking on the most ruthless and elusive terror-bomber in al-Qaeda?

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0312318367 (hardcover). Paperback available June 2005.

See the First Editions/Collector's Items page for copies of the first edition hardcover.

July 2003 ...BLACK STORM in Paperback
A Novel of Bioterror in Wartime Iraq

Black Storm cover

From the bestselling author of The Med, The Circle, The Gulf, The Passage, Tomahawk, and China Sea comes a novel of Marine Corps special operations – the men whose bravery and sacrifice brought victory in the desert.

Six days before America invades Iraq, Saddam Hussein issues an ultimatum: If Coalition forces cross the border, he’ll turn Israel into “a crematorium.” U.S. intelligence agencies suspect he’s concealing either a crude nuclear device or missiles loaded with chemical or biological agents. A quickly assembled Marine Recon team gets the assignment for Operation Signal Mirror. In the four days left before the ground war begins, Gunnery Sergeant Marcus Gault and his Marine-Army-Navy team must land in Iraq, locate Saddam’s ultimate deterrent, and target it for destruction.

David Poyer’s novels are ranked among the finest military fiction of our time. Not only for their vividness and authenticity, but for their unflinching probing of the deepest questions of military and personal ethics. How can some men send others to die? Is it acceptable to kill the innocent, to accomplish your mission? At what point does acting against an aggressor become more dangerous than the aggression itself? Bristling with suspense, action, and intensely human characters, backed by an insider’s knowledge of Marine and Navy operations, Black Storm is Poyer at his best.

ISBN... 0-312-26969-2 St. Martin's Press paperback. See the First Editions/Collector's Items page to order autographed copies of the first edition hardcover.

Praise for BLACK STORM

"No one writes gritty, realistic military fiction better than David Poyer. No one."

--Stephen Coonts, author of America

“Not since James Jones' The Thin Red Line have readers experienced the gripping fear of what it's like to fight an enemy at close quarters. Far beyond that, Poyer's research is impeccable, his characterization compelling, and the Iraqi Desert Storm scenario, all too believable when we
see how the United States Marine Corp's finest deals with the worst of what mankind has to offer. A must read for all students of military history."

--John J. Gobbell, author of When Duty Whispers Low

"I've been a David Poyer fan for over a decade and his storytelling abilities – always first-rate – just get better and better. Black Storm is a timely, gripping, compelling yarn told by a master."

--Ralph Peters, author of Beyond Terror and The War in 2020

"Black Storm is a gripping, gritty novel that reads like the real thing. You're with the Marines every step of the way, on a search and destroy mission into the heart of Iraq. David Poyer knows his stuff."

--Vince Flynn, author of Separation of Power and The Third Option

“ABSOLUTELY RIVETING. David Poyer has captured the essence of what it is like on long range patrols, and what Marine Force Reconnaissance and Special Operations Forces could face in the ongoing war on terrorism...distinguished by quick actions and continuing suspense that will keep the reader on edge until the very end.”
– Maj Gen. HarryW. Jenkins, USMC (Ret),
Former commander, 4th Marine Amphibious Brigade in Desert Storm.

Click here to read first chapter!

REVIEWS

From The Virginian-Pilot, Aug 11:

David Poyer -- writer of goose-pimpling novels about sea-diving, underwater caves, modern Navy action and much more -- has set his latest story in the hottest of today's hot spots.
    "Black Storm" (echoing "Desert Storm") involves a tricky and deadly military mission behind enemy lines at the outset of the Gulf War. But the book is grimly up-to-date, coinciding as it does with efforts right now by the United States to organize a final defanging of Saddam Hussein, with his continuing, suspected capacity for nuclear, chemical and biological violence against us and others.
    Poyer's scenario: On the eve of the 1991 US-led invasion to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait, word comes of a vague super-weapon threat by Saddam, intended to give the coalition leaders second thoughts. No one knows for sure what the weapon, code-named "Flying Stones" by our military, consists of -- if anything.
    Navy Lt. Cdr Dan Lenson, a familiar figure to readers of several other Poyer novels, and a female Army doctor with infectious disease experience are attached to a tiny unit of assault-trained Marine recon men. They are to be the investigators, and probably the targeters of the mystery tool of mass destruction, reportedly nesting in underground Baghdad.
    The hazards of getting in and out of the presumed launch zone are daunting enough in the planning stage, including the job of keeping the recon group sufficiently focused and tight-knit to deal with deadly resistance and surprises. Everything proves far worse -- and more hair-raising -- in the actual operation.
    After their "insertion" by helicopter in the vicinity of the Iraqi capital, the equipment-burdened team members make their way inch by claustrophobic inch through sewer lines and other underground pipes, one a conduit under the Tigris River. The encounter obstacles galore, including casualties and an episode of capture and torture. One of the dreaded risks is that the Iraqis might worm from some member a clue to the coalition's invasion strategy.
    At the height of the undertaking, after the team is joined by a pragmatic British soldier and an Iraqi informer, the suspense peaks when a decision has to be made about the very nature of the mission: Whether the little group itself, rather than relahing bombing coordinates to coalition forces, should take some action to disable the terrifying killer found beneath a Baghdad hospital.
    How that decision turns out, atop all the other moments of heroism and pain, gives "Black Storm" a special significance in our post-9/11 world.
    Poyer, a retured Navy captain who lives on Virginia's Eastern Shore, has made hard-edged, realistic adventure-writing his trademark. This book will certainly rank among his best.
    Scary in its timeliness. Timely in its scariness. Take your pick.

                                                                                                                                        --- George Hebert

February 2000: CHINA SEA

China Sea cover

Booklist calls Dave Poyer's cycle of modern Navy tales "One of the outstanding bodies of nautical fiction during the last half-century." With CHINA SEA, his self-doubting protagonist Daniel V. Lenson faces for the first time the unforgiving challenge of command at sea.

Ordered to take over a Knox-class frigate from an alcoholic skipper, Dan finds he's inherited a damaged ship, an untrustworthy crew, and an ambiguous mission. He is to take USS Oliver C. Gaddis, soon to become PNS Tughril, on her final voyage to be donated to Pakistan. But in Karachi, Dan gets new orders: take Gaddis still further east, and operate against modern pirates preying on commercial shipping in the remote, dangerous South China Sea.

Pursing an elusive and shadowy foe into an exotic, isolated world of hazardous reefs and tropic islands, Dan gradually discerns a larger purpose behind his supposed objective. Who are these "pirates?" What expansionist cunning supports them? Abandoned by the Navy, threatened by a mutinous crew, a murderous shipmate, and an approaching typhoon, Gaddis struggles to survive without crossing the shadow-line herself.

Filled with suspense, battle, and unforgettable descriptions of the sea's beauty and violence, CHINA SEA continues Dan Lenson's star-crossed career in his most dangerous and equivocal voyage so far.

St. Martin's Press, paperback edition, ISBN 0-312-202-873. See the First Editions/Collector's Items page for personalized copies of the first edition hardcover.

Read the First Chapter!

From Shipmate, July/Aug 2000:

David Poyer '71 brings the courage, honor and commitment of sea duty to life in this vivid portrayal of life aboard a Knox-class frigate. China Sea is the sixth book in his well-acclaimed series of the modern Navy. Set in the early 1990s, the young lieutenant commander, Daniel Lenson, is rewarded with one of the great challenges that make a surface warfare career particularly exciting. He is assigned to take early command of the frigate, but under less than ideal conditions, in order to prepare her for transfer to the Pakistani Navy. The thrill of his first command rapidly succumbs to the reality of inadequate manning, poor morale, broken equipment and insufficient munitions as his task changes from delivering the vessel to one of combat in the South China Sea.
    The details describing life at sea are captivating as the action is continually rolling along and each page pulls a new twist into the architecture of the story. In the end, the reader is treated to a fantastic battle that pulls each of the story threads together as a tightly woven yarn. The surface warriors that read this book will need to allow Poyer some editorial license in stretching the limits of radar horizon, legal authority and bumper-boat-like survivability, but these few allowances do not detract from the excitement of the story. In fact, Poyer offers the tactically minded officer some clever tools to keep in mind for those occasions we hope will never arise.
    The scales of intrigue, from murder, piracy and battle to international diplomacy, capture the imagination with lifelike characters of heroes and villains most naval readers can link to real people met during their own world travels. He paints a collage of past events that provide logical extensions of how current geopolitics may be adversely affected by decisions made ten years ago. Interestingly, his theme of anti-piracy tops the list of regional issues being debated in Southeast Asia today.
    Written to reflect a time already past, his political points provide ample food for thought in dealing with present day problems. Piracy is an increasing problem; nations that drive ships in the South China Sea are forming coalitions to combat piracy; China is not willing to become a participant in those multi-lateral operations. Poyer highlights the importance of strategic relationships in the region with Indonesia emerging as one of the most strategic partnerships the U.S. Navy can pursue.
    China Sea belongs in the library of avid fiction readers and deserves attention beyond the scope of mere recreational reading. Even those that prefer non-fiction will find that this book provides more than adequate mental stimulation. The excitement of the chase, as described by Poyer, transforms into an educational transcript of how the U.S. Navy plays an ever-important role in shaping our world and the seas we sail on today. -- Lcdr George Capen USN

From Chesapeake Life Magazine:

"There is a special kind of realism required of a naval adventure story. It should be hard-edged and vivid and make you feel the chafe of the wind and taste the bitter tang of the coffee that keeps the ship's crew alert.
    "The novel China Sea delivers that sharp reality in the wide-ranging voyage of the U.S. Navy's most mysterious frigate, whose name, nationality, and mission are so secret, even its captain, Lieutenant Commander Dan Lenson, doesn't know them. With a crew of naval misfits, stolen fuel, and outdated weaponry, Lenson struggles to fulfill his uncertain purpose: stopping the deadliest pirates in the China Sea.
    China Sea is the sixth in David Poyer's series, Tales of the Modern Navy. Poyer grants to his protagonist, Lenson, his own introduction to the Chesapeake region beginning with the walk from the bus on Annapolis's State Circle to the Naval Academy for his first day as a plebe.
    Poyer himself is a graduate of the Academy and it's his naval experience that gives him such a rich resource of locations, characters, actions, and issues. 'A writer should write about what thrills or enrages or repels or angers him,' he says, 'That's the source of good writing.' And the Navy provides him plenty.
    In China Sea, honor and integrity are central, as are the conflict between the needs of the mission and the demands of honor and integrity. 'Ethics and the mission are often in conflict,' Poyer says of modern naval reality. 'That's why they teach ethics at the Naval Academy, to help those young mids find the right way.'
    His protagonist, Commander Lenson, becomes a bit of a pirate himself to get his job done as he discovers that the Uniform Code of Military Justice doesn't fit the needs of a captain facing a psychopatic crewman, an incompetent executive officer, and an unpaid crew. This multilayered conflict against the sea, the law, the need for justice, and the guns of the enemy combine with action, realism, and exotic locales to make China Sea an absorbing, exciting, and thought-provoking experience. -- Doug Palmer

The Gulf cover

TOMAHAWK

In the wake of a collapsed marriage and three stressful tours at sea, Lieutenant-Commander Dan Lenson is ordered to shore duty in Washington. He's been handpicked by Rear Admiral "Nick" Niles for a high-priority, top-secret assignment: help design, test, and deploy the trouble-prone new Tomahawk cruise missile aboard the newly-reactivated Iowa-class battleships. But as Dan moves into the thick of weapons-acquisition politics, he discovers the new missile has powerful enemies, determined to destroy it and him. Leaks from the program suggest a spy is at work, and Dan comes under suspicion. Meanwhile, he finds himself falling unexpectedly -- and perhaps unwisely -- in love with Kerry Donavan, a Plowshares activist on trial for her protests. Dan's response to her mysterious murder on a Potomac towpath challenges his core beliefs as he struggles with the defense establishment, Congress, the Air Force, Chinese spies, and finally Libya to develop Tomahawk from a crash-prone failure into a deadly weapon. St. Martin's Press, paperback, ISBN 0-312-17975-8.

See the First Editions/Collector's Items page for autographed copies of the first edition hardcover.

THE PASSAGE

Assigned to straighten out the innovative but failure-prone combat direction system of USS Barrett, DDG-998, Lieutenant Dan Lenson is at a personal crossroads after his divorce. As he starts his voyage, Graciela Gutierrez starts hers, plotting a daring escape from Cuba in a homemade boat. Struggling to crack a computer virus, Lenson hears whispers about Captain Thomas Leighty's sexual orientation, and doubts about the executive officer's loyalty. Somewhere aboard is a ruthless and cunning spy, with a plan to lure Barrett into a frightening international confrontation. Suspenseful, profound, and richly peopled, THE PASSAGE asks disturbing questions about honor, loyalty, justice, and truth. Available in St. Martin's Press paperback, ISBN 0-312- 95450-6.

See the First Editions/Collector's Items page for copies of the first edition hardcover.

THE CIRCLE

Ensign Danel V. Lenson reports to his first ship, USS Reynolds Ryan, an aging destroyer. With a mixture of pride and fear, he heads with her into the Arctic Sea in winter. Her orders -- to find the worst storm she can, and stay in it. Ryan's crew is drawn into pursuit of a rogue Soviet missile sub. But her most dangerous foe is within, and after her fiery loss at sea in a disastrous collision Dan confronts it in a secret court-martial deep in the bowels of the Pentagon. This is the novel that sees so deeply into the Navy psyche and the demands of life at sea that it is required reading in the Literature of the Sea course at Annapolis. Available in paperback from St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-92964-1.

See the First Editions/Collector's Items page for copies of the first edition hardcover.

Download first chapter.

THE GULF

Set in the blistering, sandblasted Persian Gulf, The Gulf begins with the destruction of a US frigate by a cruise missile, then escalates into a plot of breathtaking plausibility: a US-Iran war, with LCDR Dan Lenson, executive officer of USS Turner Van Zandt, FFG-91, in the center of its most dangerous mission. With its highly charged plot, its varied characters, and its authentic portrait of the Navy's rituals, pressures, operations, and weapons, this may be the most complex and wide-ranging Lenson novel. In print as a St. Martin's Press paperback, ISBN 0-312-92577-8. See the First Editions/Collector's Items page for copies of the first edition hardcover.

THE MED

David Poyer's first novel of the modern U.S. Navy, and still one of his most popular. Cloaked by the dawn mists, Task Force 61 -- carrying tanks, aircraft, and over 5000 Marines -- steams east toward H-hour. Their mission: rescue 100 hostages from a mountain stronghold deep in terrorist-supporting Syria. Staff officer Lt (jg) Dan Lenson has three problems. His commodore is an incompetent coward, a war is raging in the eastern Med, and his wife is one of the terrorists' hostages. An explosive tale of international crisis, personal valor, and emotional struggle. In print as a St. Martin's Press paperback, ISBN 0-312-92722-3; unfortunately I'm all out of hardcover first editions of this title.

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