Title: The Adventures of George Lee: A Race Against Time
Author: Orville Mann
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 9781543415193
Pages: 198
Genre: Fiction / Suspense
Reviewed by: Joe Kilgore
Pacific Book Review
Mann’s novel of secret military operations, terrorist plots, and assassination attempts, is decidedly different from what one usually finds in this genre. The majority of such tales generally include large doses of sex, violence, brutality, and mayhem. By contrast, this story is long on honor, humility, kindness, and Christianity. That’s not to say there are no life-threatening events, potential global calamities, and hair-raising situations. In fact, they abound. It’s simply that the author has chosen to tell his story with a bona fide G (general audience) rating. This is a suspense yarn with a distinctively family voice.
George Edward Lee, a First Lieutenant when the story begins, is quickly promoted to Captain and assigned to ramrod a combination of servicemen and civilians gathered on a secret base in the Pacific. Their clandestine mission is to come up with a way to destroy a terrible weapon some unnamed enemy has developed and is planning to use against the United States. There to support Lee is his driver, friend, and soon to be First Sergeant, Harry Collins. Also there, as fate (and stories of this sort) would have it, is a beautiful blonde civilian worker, Laura Krieger. Before you know it, Lee is mixing business with pleasure and falling in love with Laura. A whirlwind romance and marriage takes place even as potential saboteurs are being uncovered, interrogated, and in one case, co-opted to help the good guys.
All the action doesn’t simply take place in the middle of nowhere. As the narrative unfolds, Lee and his lovely wife wind up being transported via a naval ship, jetted to Florida and then to Washington D.C. where they wind up dining with the President. Later, they’re involved in some devious goings-on in Hawaii, followed by hand-to-hand combat in an airport, and eventually they get around to face-to-face meetings with each of their in-laws. But even then, they wind up dodging bullets. By the way, there’s also a mysterious mercenary on hand who has an ongoing role in both Lee and Laura’s fate.
Mann’s style of writing is crisp and descriptive. His detailing of military behavior and protocol denotes familiarity with both. While his dialogue is expressive, it’s also more sanitized than realistic. Pace is a plus. He moves his plot along with only the occasional excursion onto wistful sidetracks. Throughout, he imbues his central characters with a reverence for and a devotion to Christianity. Readers who are likeminded will no doubt appreciate this tendency as well as his adventurous tale.
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