POINT OPTION

A naval shakedown cruise goes awry after encountering a time portal in this near-future military thriller.

Although David Fleming, 32, is a major in the United States Air Force, he’s on an exchange tour with The Lyndon Baines Johnson Carrier Strike Group in the Mediterranean. It’s a plum assignment with a formidable force that should be able to handle anything. Yet soon, mysterious problems develop, including garbled communications, haywire instrumentation and radar, a Russian submarine that surfaces out of nowhere, and two young aviators who return from a mission dying of old age. Patrolling in a jet near Livorno, Italy, Dave and his backseater, Lt. J.G. Charles Lafayette, seem to disappear. The LBJ goes in search of them and is rocked by an explosive burst of pressure accompanied by a brilliant green light. When the carrier finds the pilots, Dave has astonishing news: “We have somehow gone back in time. My best guess is this is the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Century.” Before recrossing the time barrier and returning home, Dave’s group will need to rescue the crew members of a contemporary pleasure cruiser also caught in the time warp since they’re slated to be burned at the stake. Time is of the essence. In his latest thriller, O’Connor—a retired Air Force colonel—provides well-written, well-researched verisimilitude. Military buffs will enjoy such descriptions as the LBJ “measures one thousand two hundred feet from bow to stern and displaces just over one hundred two thousand long tons.” Readers more interested in time travel than specs may wish this plot element had been more developed, although it adds some intriguing zing to the overall mission. Characterization, too, is thin despite some backstory for Dave and his wife.

An absorbing and thought-provoking action-adventure.