SPIDER GREEN

Faydra 'Spider' Green is a officer with the USN JAG.

That acronym stands for the Judge Advocate General Corps, United States Navy. It is the military justice branch of the Navy, responsible for handling all legal matters pertaining to that Service and any of its personnel. Its people handle both civil matters, such as preparing contracts or reviewing those created by other, and criminal, handling both the prosecution and the defense side of a case.

Green is a Lieutenant Commander and as such she has been with the organization for several years, handling largely contractual matters. When we meet her in the first recorded adventure, she has just been handed, for reasons she is not given or does she request, her first homicide case. This is a major change in her career path and will result in major changes to her personally.

Being an officer with JAG hardly qualifies her for membership in this compendium. Not even the fact that this tall, athletic blonde woman is also the daughter of William Green, former President of the United States, would be enough to offer her a position. What does is the fact that this first case, as well as the next couple that will come her way, all involve matters of international intrigue and threats of war, not to mention more than a couple of run-ins with espionage agents on her side and otherwise.

Green is described as a tall, athletic blonde woman who is definitely not a morning person; when awakened too early by a phone call, "her first impulse was to pick up the cell phone and beat the alarm clock with it". Attractive to most, her approach to grooming was that "appearances matter in society ... she tended to [hers] the same way she would research or try a case, with as little personal involvement as possible".

Good Lines:
- She tended to her appearance the same way she would research or try a case, with as little personal involvement as possible.
- "Mysteries intrigued her. Any mystery beckoned her, like a clam closed tightly, and she brought a sea otter's ambition and patience to cracking one open."

I love a series concept that brings with it a special hook to make it just a tad bit different and the adventures of Faydra 'Spider' Green have that with Green being the daughter of an ex-President. Estranged, of course, but still able to draw upon her heritage is she chose. To her credit, she choses not to.

In the case of this series, though, there is an added hook in that she is a JAG officer whose cases push her into the spy-fi world without her wanting it in the least. That in itself would have been enough to grab my interest.

There are, as of this writing, four really enjoyable adventures and seeing how much I enjoyed them, I hope there will be more.