The premise of Southern Cross was intriguing, especially considering the Manchurian candidate in the White House and the belief that the next superpower encounter will be won at sea. The fact that China is becoming heavily involved in South America increased interest. However, the story becomes a bit improbable with the actions of the Secretaries of State and Defense. As lax as our “free press” has become, it is difficult to believe that someone would not have discovered the Administration’s ties to China and exposed them. I received an ARC from NetGalley, and the opinions expressed are my own.

""The Southern Cross," by George Wallace and Don Keith, is the 9th book in the "Hunter Killer Series," published by Severn River Publishing (who provided me with the ARC from which I am working). For those of you familiar with the series, largely focused on the confluence of submarine warfare and covert operations, it will come as no surprise that this is a solidly well-written and thoroughly entertaining read. This particular book in the series looks at events in Latin America which find Argentina and Brazil allied under Chinese auspices in an attempt to subvert the world monetary system in their own interests as well as that of their powerful patron. They are also flexing military muscles in the region to intimidate their neighbors, principally Paraguay and Chile. The book is fascinating in its grasp of covert operations and the role that submarines play in special operations. The technical mastery of the military technology is impressive without being overpowering, and the average reader, while perhaps not as impressed as I am by this feature of the work will, nonetheless, find it useful in understanding much about special operations. The book stands alone as a novel without necessarily having to have read the others (although that clearly wouldn't hurt), and this increases its mass market appeal. This is not excessively cerebral nor is it the most action packed book of its genre, but it is interesting and fast paced as well as being quite accessible to the reader unaccustomed to the subject matter. I have only read one other in this particular series, but the quality appears to be consistent, and where characters may have appeared in other books before appearing here, the authors are careful to introduce readers new to the series to how they fit into the big picture.