Shellback is a naval and maritime action novel including Middle East intrigue, Cold War naval action, Korean War search and rescue, semi-pro baseball, romance and Washington high-level machination. All this is set in a tense web of high-seas drama focused on an attack against the Maritime Prepositioning Ships at Diego Garcia and on a Convoy Commodore who has a peculiar knack of getting himself into situations that require special judgment, decision making, innovation and determination. Martin Shielbrock is a retired Navy captain who has been recalled to active duty to conduct a routine exercise with the prepositioned ships at Diego Garcia. We have learned about Shielbrock in a series of his experiences leading up to this exercise and we have seen that he is not your everyday retiree, he has a way of figuring out what has to be done and doing it no matter what, even if told not to do it.
Martin Shielbrock got his nickname Shellback early in his navy career and he is one stubborn guy. When he sets his mind to something and knows he’s right, he does it regardless of consequences and regardless of advice or orders. He meets and marries the beautiful and elegant Barbara Muir, they have children and we learn of a possible compromise involving Barbara’s wealthy former lover. Moses Farscian is a Kurdish Iraqi soldier to whom life’s adventure has been a series of disasters. We meet him in a complex situation of Middle Eastern intrigue in which the mission and cause of his operation are clouded by questions no one can answer, no one including some of the top intelligence sources in the world. The web of intrigue eventually brings Moses Farscian into contact with Martin Shielbrock.
There are U.S. admirals and generals that influence the situations that Shellback finds himself in and there are Kurds, ayatollahs, Iranians, and Iraqis that hate, love, depend or don’t care about Moses Farscian and his team mates or their operation. The story covers people from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to a sailor who loses his favorite knife, old and young men and women, soldiers, sailors, and ball players, all trying to make their way through life’s complications and some make it while others don't.
There is technical detail, romance, violence, gunfire, missiles, helicopters, artillery, flame and death as well as love, as Shellback does what he does best he does what he thinks is right. But who knows what’s right? Moses Farscian has a similar problem.
