JACK WARNER

Jack Warner is a reporter.

He considers himself a fairly good one although he knows his editor might often disagree but he knows how to track down leads and ferret out the truth and when it comes time to put that truth to words, he can do so quickly and succinctly. He makes his home and his normal beat the West Coast where he is happy and content and not really anxious to broaden his horizons any but they get broadened despite his lack of enthusiasm.

Warner is in his mid to late 30s, single, and with no major vices to speak of. If one overlooked his tendency to be politely disrespectfully to, frankly, everyone, he was a pretty good fellow who had learned that the best way to hear the truth is to listen. Warner is a good listener with a very good BS detector.

Coming into his own during the infamous Tailhook scandal where the Navy's treatment of females in the ranks was shown to be quite deplorable, at least in the officer ranks, he wrote of several instances of less-than-stellar behaviour. Where he really made a name for himself, though, was when he began a series of articles in the aftermath of the revelations in which he pointed out far too many instances of good officers and non-coms being dragged down because of the few bad apples. This showed many in the Service that while he was out for a good story, he was not out to destroy simply to get one and that he saw more than one side in a situation.

It was never Warner's intention to get involved in things at a national and international level. He was a reporter who got pulled into a story that had far greater ramifications than he ever imagined. After that, his life and career took a quite different direction.

One direction it took moved him into close contact with Randi Cole, a lieutenant in the Navy Air Corps and one of the women who is selected to join the all-male group of carrier-based Hornet pilots. Ms. Cole plays a key role in both recorded adventures and makes the pages even better when she is present. Trained by her father and his best friend to be a terrific pilot who is not afraid to push herself, she saves the day more than once and shows well that women can do whatever men can do. Even better, instead of being the female in trouble urgently needing saving, she is the one who comes swooping in with a very powerful jet fighter and saves the day.

The two-book series about reporter Jack Warner is one of those that lay on the edge of what might or might not be a spy series. The author is a veteran pilot who knows flying and aerial combat like the back of his hand and has the impressive skill to present it to land-lubbers like myself in a way that, if not crystal clear, certainly is more understandable and therefore a lot more enjoyable.

The first book deals with, primarily, the lengths some neanderthals will go to keep the Navy "pure", up to and including killing for their beliefs. It strays for a bit into international waters and touchs on political hoaxes but for the most part, it is women-don't-belong-here that rules the first book and makes it a very enjoyable mystery.

The second book leaps from the domestic to the international scene in a way that is a tad jarring - why is Warner in the position he is in becomes a question had lingers. Still, the author's understanding of the business of fighter jet sales is impressive and he makes it easy to see that when national pride is mixed with billions of dollars, a little thing like killing a competitor pilor or three is not that big a deal.

The author is a good one for telling an enjoyable tale cleanly and swiftly and fully. I enjoyed the two books a lot and read each one in a day. I would have welcomed more.