{"id":5443,"date":"2016-03-21T08:09:24","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T12:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5443"},"modified":"2016-03-21T08:09:24","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T12:09:24","slug":"the-empty-quarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5443","title":{"rendered":"****The Empty Quarter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"desert,

(photo: Ilker Ender, creative commons license)<\/p><\/div>\n

By David L. Robbins \u2013What an exciting adventure combining military and medical thriller elements! It takes place in the Rub\u2019 al-Khali, the world\u2019s largest desert (\u201cthe empty quarter\u201d), which occupies most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. People are scarce there, except for the ones you most do not want to meet.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a multiple point-of-view novel, told mostly from the perspectives of members of a U.S. Air Force pararescuemen (PJs) team. PJs\u2019 combined military-medical mission is personnel recovery, and they use both conventional and unconventional combat rescue methods. The motto of this branch of service is \u201cThat Others May Live,\u201d and Robbins effectively describes the team members\u2019 dedication to that mission, despite their differences in personality and temperament.<\/p>\n

We also read the point of view of Arif, a middle-aged Saudi man whose wife Nadya is a member of the Saudi royal family. Her father, Prince Hassan bin Abd al-Aziz is the country\u2019s head of security. Arif has fallen out with his father-in-law, and he and Nadya are in hiding in the tiny Yemeni town of Ma\u2019rib. Robbins portrays their mutual devotion quite movingly.<\/p>\n

A third key point of view is that of Josh Cofield, a former Army Ranger, assigned to the American Embassy in the Yemeni capital Sana\u2019a. Everyone, the ambassador included, erroneously believes Josh is CIA, because he is \u201cawkward as a diplomat,\u201d a bit of a bull in a china shop, but a skilled speaker of Arabic.<\/p>\n

When an attempt is made on Prince Aziz\u2019s life, he mistakenly blames the exiled Arif. He wants his son-in-law dead and his daughter returned to him, and he wants U.S. help in achieving these goals He cannot get it, however, unless an American life is threatened. A plan begins to take shape in diabolical minds.<\/p>\n

A wild nighttime chase across the desert occupies the last half of the book. Part of Robbins\u2019s skill is in avoiding making any of the principal players obvious bad guys. They\u2019re complex characters with conflicting goals, and all doing their best to resolve an impossible situation.<\/p>\n

I appreciated that the book includes helpful maps. Not as helpful\u2014and something readers are bound to object to\u2014is the frequent use of military abbreviations and acronyms. While Robbins defines a few of these in footnotes, it might have been better to have a list in an appendix\u00a0 or to retain the abbreviations in speech, but not rely on them as much in the narrative. It would be a shame if readers abandoned a top-notch tale because of the resulting confusion. Robbins has 10 other novels under his body armor. I\u2019ll be reading more of them!<\/p>\n

A longer version of this review appeared on CrimeFictionLover.com<\/a>.
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