Bayou Samurai

Rating:
Summary: An absolute must read
Review: An absolute must read
If you like action-adventure stories, then this is the book for you. The characters are blended together with skill that makes the plot very interesting. Set in exotic Asia, the author brings you into a very volatile situation in which a nuclear suitcase bomb is stolen by an American colonel. His intent and whereabouts are initially a mystery baffling both CIA and Soviet GRU agents. While this search is in full swing, the highly profiled removal of poison gas (Operation Red-Hat) begins on Okinawa with covered up incidents of deadly sarin and tabun leakage. The main character, Bayou Samurai, becomes involved in this gas removal along with being tasked with a secret 'Black-Code' mission. There is plenty of activity ranging from murder, drug smuggling, typhoons, political pressure, to Bayou Samurai's romantic, often comical flirtation with the beautiful geisha, Uri Kikuchi. From the White House to General Big-Minh in Saigon and his drug warlord buddy, Khun Sa in Burma, Bayou Samurai manages to meet all challenges with his 'odd' method of going after the bad-guys with one foot always in hot-water with his superiors. A true page turner, I couldn't put the book down. I have never read anything as exciting and riveting in my life. My strongest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: Bayou - Samurai Connection
Review: If Forrest Gump had stayed in the army, he would have been the perfect definition of 'Bayou Samurai', a reserve officer, rather innocently contrified from Louisiana, full of contradictions, afraid of upsetting his military boss's as he stumbles across Asia to remove poison gas from Okinawa, then recover a missing nuclear bomb along with thirteen pounds of plutonium just for starters. It's a great story, well thought out with some very interesting characters like the Burmese drug warlord, Khun Sa with his odd compassion for American primitive art; Timothy Bernard, VFW manager on Okinawa, thriving drug smuggling money while in cahoots with Saigon General Big Minh; Colonel Charles Hungeford, the renegade West Point expatriate, a misguided genius madly in love with 'Arun' (Dawn) of the Akha hill-tribes in the Golden Triangle, pregnant with Khun Sa's child; Uri Kikuchi, the beautiful virgin geisha, secretary to Chobyo Yara, top political figure in the impending reversion of Okinawa back to Japanese control who distrusts Americans, yet befriends Bayou Samurai. Throw in Bayou Samurai's romantic, comical scenes with Uri and his Vietnam femme fatale Nguyen Thi Chua and the rambunctious Major Steinson; you have plenty of sex to blend with often raw acts of violence, political intrigue, and descriptive areas of Japan, Okinawa, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Burma, poetic in almost seance, blending with plot--- which is darn good.

Rating:
Summary: First-rate Novel
Review: The year is 1971. American involvement in Vietnam is winding down and the United States prepares for reversion of Okinawa back to Japan. Enter Indiana Jones-like Captain Rast, fresh from his tour of duty in Vietnam, ready to begin his next adventure on "The Rock." Assigned to the top-secret "Operation Red-Hat," the removal of WMD's from Okinawa, Captain Rast is catapulted into a world of military cover-ups, renegade officers, CIA operatives, sinister drug lords, murder, firefights, and (Oh, Yes!) steamy sex.
Rast's first-rate novel, filled with colorful and sometimes loony characters, snappy and witty dialogue, and biting political commentary, is an exciting and action-packed book from beginning to end. --Diana J. Dell, author, "A Saigon Party: And Other Vietnam War Short Stories."

Rating:
Summary: First-rate Novel
Review: The year is 1971. American involvement in Vietnam is winding down and the United States prepares for reversion of Okinawa back to Japan. Enter Indiana Jones-like Captain Rast, fresh from his tour of duty in Vietnam, ready to begin his next adventure on "The Rock." Assigned to the top-secret "Operation Red-Hat," the removal of WMD's from Okinawa, Captain Rast is catapulted into a world of military cover-ups, renegade officers, CIA operatives, sinister drug lords, murder, firefights, and (Oh, Yes!) steamy sex.
Rast's first-rate novel, filled with colorful and sometimes loony characters, snappy and witty dialogue, and biting political commentary, is an exciting and action-packed book from beginning to end. --Diana J. Dell, author, "A Saigon Party: And Other Vietnam War Short Stories."

Rating:
Summary: Nam From The Bayou
Review: This fast-paced, turbulent, yet romantic story focuses on a young somewhat countrified American officer assigned to Operation Red Hat on Okinawa in 1971. The circumstances are multi level making for some good reading as the story unfolds taking the reader across Asia and into The Oval Office of The White House for snatches of great dialogue, epsecially between Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger. There is Operation Red Hat involving removal of poison gas and nukes from Okinawa, drug-smuggling intrigue, a missing nuclear suitcase bomb, government cover-ups placing the forces of good trying to undo evil into almost insolvable scenarios and great humor to balance out a Cold War drama involving realistic violence brought on by my fear and greed. I enjoyed reading this book because it was not only interesting but the obvious research is well organized in placement and sequence of characters and events. One has to wonder why Rast labels the work fiction as most of the events are true, while he only adds a delightful literary "Midas Touch" to make it into a compelling story set in an area faintly understandable by Westerners. Books like this are rare to come across nowdays which manage to bring across realistic content while co-mingling whith entertaining readability.