The BRINK

They were casualties of the cold war - flying into the maelstrom.

1958. The United States and China have clashed head-on over two obscure, barren islands in the Straits of Taiwan - Quemoy and Matsu. Suddenly the cold war turns hot as the aircraft carrier-based "Black Knights" Navy squadron is placed on full alert. Lieutenant Charly Rohr and his buddies in the elite squadron are on call for World War III, patrolling the Red Chinese coast in their F-8 Crusader fighter-bombers. They take off and land on storm-tossed carriers at sea, pushed to the breaking point by a hard-nosed commander who is honing them for all-out battle. Outfitted with a payload of nuclear arms, the Black Knights are ready to deliver the first strike to the Chinese mainland, as they live - and die on ...THE BRINK.

A supersonic air adventure which describes night patrols from a U.S. carrier off the Red Chinese mainland in 1958. This story is told via naval officer Charly Rohr, who survives disasters John Wayne never dreamed off. Every horror is penned with graphic detail and reveals the real human beings within the wire-tense pilots. On the brink, all the way.

Tragic accidents, ship and air life, international confrontations, the lives of men pushed to the breaking point, all make this suspense story a chiller. Rick Setlowe seems to know his material well: his descriptions of pilots flying under extreme pressure make it almost too real, in this look backward at the uncommon terrors of power politics.