Blue Eagle Press, 2001, $15, ISBN 1-879043-10-6, 366 pgs

I polished this off in two nights' reading. Behind the Green Water takes you to the No Fly Zone in northern Iraq with a polyglot group of ex-military and civilians doing what they can to help feed the Kurds. Our hero, Nash Devon, gets shanghaied by US military intelligence as an agricultural advisor to the UN Commission for Refugees. He's supposed to be on a weapons inspection team but shadowy government spooks have other ideas for this Gulf War hero.

So off he goes to Iraq without any spy training or equipment, assisted by a Pakistani friend who is really working for a fanatic Islamic group. The Iraqis love to take potshots at UN workers. Landmines are everywhere. The French woman is a bitch (but you know she has a heart of gold and will eventually bed our hero). And that's only the start of Devon's problems.

Suffice it to say that in the tradition of Indiana Jones and Jack Ryan--a point the publisher emphasizes in PR copy--Devon gets in and out of scrapes, defies death, and you know, you just know, that he'll figure out what to do in the nick of time. Did I mention the icon of Christ?

Taylor pens lively prose and weaves a complex plot around the all-American hero. The pace is about right, and for the most part, the action believable. I had a little problem with the Chernobyl-ish nuclear problem, and it's a shame the big bad Pakistani didn't plug the omnipresent adolescent Yakkin the way he did the mother, but you can't have everything. I rather enjoyed Khan the fanatic Pakistani--good, intelligent, and resourceful villains are hard to find and Taylor created a delicious baddie.

It's well written and clever, but events sometimes get a little too coincidental. The archaeological consequences and coincidences surrounding the French woman and her search for a particular icon lead to a monastery, which happens to be next to the nuke building. And the chase eventually ends up in Israel in the one cave in the Golan Heights no one has ever explored. On the flip side, the Dead Sea scrolls weren't found until 1947, so it is possible to miss a cave.

Taylor, who served as platoon leader through battalion commander in the 101st Airborne, has authored a nifty novel of international intrigue. If coincidences occur, well, they don't detract while you're reading. And you'll read it alright, and look for a sequel. I am.

This book is scheduled for release in October 2001.

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