The Red Line

by Walt Gragg

Overview

WWIII explodes in this electrifying debut military thriller in the tradition of Red Storm Rising and The Third World War.

“Delta-Two, I’ve got tanks through the wire! They’re everywhere!”
 
World War III explodes in seconds when a resurgent Russian Empire launches a deadly armored thrust into the heart of Germany. With a powerful blizzard providing cover, Russian tanks thunder down the autobahns while undercover Spetsnaz teams strike at vulnerable command points.
 
Standing against them are the woefully undermanned American forces. What they lack in numbers they make up for in superior weapons and training. But before the sun rises they are on the run across a smoking battlefield crowded with corpses.
 
Any slim hope for victory rests with one unlikely hero. Army Staff Sergeant George O'Neill, a communications specialist, may be able to reestablish links that have been severed by hostile forces, but that will take time. While he works, it’s up to hundreds of individual American soldiers to hold back the enemy flood.
 
There’s one thing that’s certain. The thin line between victory and defeat is also the red line between life and death.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425283455
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/02/2017
Pages:	528
Sales rank:	787,920
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Walt Gragg is an attorney and former state prosecutor. He is a Vietnam veteran, who served at United States European Headquarters in Germany, where the idea for The Red Line took shape. Being privy to the actual American plan for the conduct of the defense of Germany, and having participated in a number of war games while in Germany, gave Gragg the knowledge and experience to lend authenticity to many of the novel's events.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/13/2017
Set in the near future, Gragg’s impeccably researched, riveting first novel pits a revived Soviet Union against NATO. Russia’s brutal dictator, Comrade Cheninko, has built on a resurgence of power begun under Vladimir Putin and reconstituted the Warsaw Pact. A new cold war is about to become a hot one. Cheninko’s top general, Valexi Yovanovich, has developed a brilliant plan to deceive the enemy and conquer Germany in a mere five days. An extensive cast of well-drawn men and women on both the American and Russian sides provides a personal dimension to the big-picture view of the clash of massive armies. Gragg, a Vietnam War veteran who served at the United States European Headquarters in Germany, gives readers a horrifying look at the devastation of modern warfare from the smallest, most painful details to the frighteningly plausible global scenarios that could result in the death and devastation of a significant portion of our planet. This is must reading for any military action fan. Nearly every page reeks of the smoke of battle and the stench of death. Agent: Liza Fleissig, Liza Royce Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

The best World War III epic I’ve read since Red Storm Rising.”—Grant Blackwood, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Clancy Duty and Honor
 
“You’re going to hold this book so tight you’ll leave thumbprints on the page.”—Mark Leggatt, author of The London Cage

“A superb political as well as military thriller, The Red Line stitches an all-too-plausible doomsday scenario that pulls no punches in scoring a literary knockout. Terrifyingly prescient in its premise and scarily spot-on in its execution, Walt Gragg’s debut novel channels both Tom Clancy and W.E.B. Griffin.”—Jon Land, USA Today bestselling author of Strong Cold Dead
 
“[An] impeccably researched, riveting first novel…Must reading for any military action fan. Nearly every page reeks of the smoke of battle and the stench of death.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Reads brilliantly.”—John Batchelor, nationally syndicated talk show host

From the Publisher

★ 04/15/2017
The Russians launch an attack on Germany, and World War III begins in Gragg's intense and gripping debut thriller. Assisting Germany is a team of undermanned American troops who truly have no hope of stopping the onslaught. Young soldiers must rise up, take bold risks, and seek allies if the hostilities are to end favorably for everyone. This frightening and realistic scenario will be compared to Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, as both titles deal with war and the horrors of the battlefield. The characters are more fully developed here, intensifying the emotional repercussions of the fighting. One hopes that World War III will never happen, but if it did then this book could easily become nonfiction. VERDICT Difficult reading, not for the writing, which is stellar, but rather owing to the timeliness and authenticity of the story. Recommended for fans of military and futuristic thrillers.—Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

Library Journal

2017-03-21
Communists retake Russia in this debut novel, and their Stalin-esque leader, Cheninko, fears the unified Germany that's once again run by vile Nazis.The Russian Army plays "crazy winter war games" near the German border, "a ruse to hide their true intentions," which are to invade and conquer Germany. The Russians are Soviets again, the Warsaw Pact is back, and U.S. troops are­­ still in Germany, providing the makings for a 20th century-style land war. Gen. Yovanovich promises Cheninko a victory in five days. Gragg's plot is strong and backed up by plenty of vivid, fast-moving battle scenes, with the war's outcome uncertain almost to the end. There's no single Jack Ryan-type character the free world's fate depends upon; brave men and women fight, and you'd better not get too attached to any of them. Ammo and adjectives abound. A bullet "smashed into [a] lieutenant's broad chest and dug for the fragile life hidden within." And "death was coming to scour the heavens and weed out the unworthy." And "forty proud Russians perished in a handful of fluttering heartbeats." And "death's leering face entered the morose scene once again." Yes, there are 500-plus pages of writing like that. This being the twenty-first century, America has women in combat—pretty ones, too. A female American lieutenant has an "attractive neck" and is "extremely easy on the eyes." Gimme a break. At least she doesn't powder her nose in her Humvee. Anyway, the Russians' tactical nukes may not only render her allure moot—they may actually win the war. Luckily, the oddly unnamed American president has "The Final Ace" up his sleeve, and it's a good one. The writing isn't great, but the action is. If you loved Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising or simply miss the 20th century, this one's a stroll down Memory Lane.

Kirkus Reviews

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