Preview of RENDER HARMLESS

RENDER HARMLES is the second book in the Josh Haman series is due out this fall.  It is, at least for the moment, second in the chronology of his Navy career and takes place three plus years after he returns from the Vietnam War.

Why is there a gap?  Honest answer is I am not sure but as the author and creator of the series, I reserve the right to come back and write a book between RENDER HARMLESS and BIG MOTHER 40.

When I started writing the books, I decided that each one had to stand on its own so you didn’t have to read the one before to understand what happens in the second.  Yes, in RENDER HARMLESS, there are references to events in BIG MOTHER 40 but there is enough detail so give enough context without having to go back to earlier novel.

RENDER HARMLESS takes place in 1976.  Josh is now a exchange pilot with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm.  In Germany, the youngest son of a former SS officer who is one part socialist, one part nationalist, and one part anarchist decides he wants to change the German government and creates a terrorist group called Red Hand.  To get noticed, he starts setting off car bombs that kill Americans servicemen, their dependents and Germans citizens.

Despite a countrywide man-hunt, the West German government can’t find the terrorist or any member of Red Hand.  The carnage created a nightmare for the West German government because just thirty-one years since the end of World War II, Germans were once again killing Jews.  In the midst of this, the West Germans find out that a die-hard group of ex-Nazis are implementing a long range plan to create the Fourth Reich.

Fed up, the American president orders the military to quietly look for members of Red Hand in case the West Germans can’t find the terrorists.  He directs the chairman of the joint chiefs to form a unit to develop options.  Marty Cabot, now based in San Diego is picked to head the unit and he wants Josh as his number two.  Their orders tell them to “find, neutralize and render harmless enemies as the United States as identified by the President of the United States or a competent authority…”

That’s all I’ll say about the plot, but reading the book, you’ll meet some interesting characters, e.g. a two former enemies, a Soviet tanker and SS Panzer officer are now allies, one in KGB and the other in the Stasi supporting Red Hand.  On the other side of the wall, you’ll meet a former Wehrmacht paratrooper who lost his way and finds his moral compass as well as an idealistic Luftwaffe pilot who still idolizes his dead Fuhrer.

Hope you enjoy it when it comes out.

Marc Liebman

June, 2013