Recovery: A Novel

by Steven L. Thompson

Pitted against three other nations, a highly specialized American rescue team races against time to recover a secret U.S. plane forced down in an unacknowledged war zone

Genres: Military Fiction

273 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Steven Lynn Thompson (born 1948) is an author, magazine journalist, historian of technology and former motorcycle racer.

Reviews

[Nick Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this about 30 years ago and loved it and was delighted by this low cost kindle opportunity to read it once again. My slight concern was that over thirty years tastes change and I hoped I would still enjoy it. I did although it was a quicker read than I remembered.

Set during the cold war this thriller is set in East Germany where the famous Potsdam Agreement allowed a US mission that was entitled to patrol East Germany and, more importantly, ‘recover’ any downed pilots on the wrong side of the wall. So here we have a new member of the team getting caught up in a desperate chase to recover a pilot and secret equipment before the Russians and East Germans can stop him. And the carefully agreed rules are going to be ignored by the Russians.

So it’s a thriller and a chase story as our hero throws a souped up car around German roads as he tried to make it back to safety. You can tell the author knows his way around both cars and aircraft but unnecessary technical detail is not thrown down your throat.

So thirty years on I enjoyed it again, this is a perfect way to take out of print novels and present as kindle books. It’s been a long wait but I was delighted to catch up with the author once again.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the plots of spying on one side and the spying on the other side!!! To see the mouse and cat games being played for one final result!!! Does the means justify the end ???

[JoAnn Plant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely in the Tom Clancy category- intrigue, military, Cold War. Max was set to leave the Air Force, but his housemate grilled him on his past before bed, almost like an interview. When Max woke up, he found a notice on the bathroom bulletin board that matched his experience and almost seemed tailored to him. Interestingly, the phone number to call was his housemate's, who insisted that Max come to the office for a review. Once he arrived and signed the necessary paperwork, he received some information and was then sent to Berlin, where he was to join a group of soldiers who "recover" fallen comrades but also do reconnaissance. He was immediately trained and sent out to follow some airmen who were having trouble locating one of their squad who was supposed to meet at a certain location but never showed. It was found that he had misjudged a creekbed and destroyed his plane before the German police and KGB/GRU could find him. Max and his new colleague found the plane with the pilot, but when the colleague climbed the ladder, it fell over and nearly killed him. Max tried to save the pilot, but it was too late. Before he died, the pilot told Max to save the computer, as that was why he was chased. Max retrieved the computer, and the body of the pilot as well as his fallen colleague and tried to fit everyone in the car. However, the body, computer, and colleague were not a match for the equipment, so the equipment had to go so the body and computer could rest in the trunk while the colleague could rest in the back seat. Max drove a familiar route from when his father, an Army general, was stationed there 20 years back. However, he ran into trouble when the security guard assigned to the house investigated the car at the same time Max's colleague woke up in a delusion and shot the guard dead. The lady of the house remembered Max and asked that he help her daughter defect to the West, and in return she will help him get back to the base. Along the way they encountered KGB/GRU and German Volpos (police) who wanted the equipment. Luckily for Max, his past allowed him to sideswipe the enemy and get everyone and everything back to the base. My only problem was they mentioned what happened to the girl, the computer, and the fallen soldier but did not mention what happened to Max's colleague. He was delusional and feverish, so one can only hope that he survived since this takes place in 1983. I hope he is getting better from his injury and will appear in the next book.

[Carl Scheel]

Read this book 10 years ago and read it again just recently. It hasn't lost it's interest. A great read!!