Zero Red

Chopper Ops #2

by Mack Maloney

Renegade Soviet partisans hijack a rusting ship filled with atomic warheads and steam out to sea, and the men of Chopper Ops are on the move to prevent them from going nuclear. Original.

295 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Mack Maloney is the author of numerous fiction series, including Wingman, ChopperOps, Starhawk, and Pirate Hunters, as well as UFOs in Wartime – What They Didn’t Want You to Know. A native Bostonian, Maloney received a bachelor of science degree in journalism at Suffolk University and a master of arts degree in film at Emerson College. He is the host of a national radio show, Mack Maloney’s Military X-Files. Visit him on Facebook and at www.mackmaloney.com.

Mack Maloney is the Pen name for BRIAN KELLEHER

Reviews

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 in the Chopper Ops series has plenty of non-stop action pretty much from the start. Just a few days before Christmas, our crew gets a notice from higher up, that a Russian carrier is carrying over 1000 megatons of nuclear warheads! And it has been taking over by some mercenary group. They are dropped in the North Atlantic, and are to assist the Russian Spetsnaz group to get onboard the carrier and stop this ship from heading toward the Zero Red line, which is an imaginary boundary setup during the Cold War by the U.S., which states that any Russian nuclear vessel crossing this line will be fired upon and destroyed by the U.S.
Our boys are promised to be home for Christmas, but things turn bloody pretty fast as the Spetsnaz get wiped out while infiltrating the ship. It is up to the crew of Chopper Ops to prevent a nuclear holocaust, while fighting two other groups onboard! Meanwhile, the biggest storm of the century is hitting the area with snow, rain, sleet, and wind.
Lots of pretty far fetched stuff in this novel regarding military operations, similar to Maloney's Wingman series. But it is fiction, so it should not be too in line with reality. Just a fun read.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This second Chopper Ops adventure is just as much of a tense page turner as the first. The team has to save the world (and Christmas!) from nuclear terrorism. The odds and the weather and the numbers are against them, but, even though you know that the White Hats are going to triumph in the end, it's all about seeing how they pull it off. Improbable but fun.