Reed, a former submariner himself, details many unknown stories of "the silent service". Of special interest were the many clandestine and secret operations conducted by the "spooks" and underwater divers in the U.S. Submarine Navy. ( )

Excellent telling of cold war submarine stories. The recounting of the role of Soviet submarines in the Cuban missile crisis is especially interesting. ( )

This book is really in 3 parts. The first describes the role the author's father played in tracking soviet subs in the early part of the cold war. The second goes into some detail of the soviet subs deployed to near Cuba during the missile crisis and the third is an assortment of reminisces from the author and others of spy missions conducted in the 70's and 80's. It isn't a complete account but is better treated as a description of "this war without battles or honours only casualties " written by a participant. Definitely worthwhile reading. ( )

this is truely a great read for anyone interested in the cloak and dagger carrys on during the cold war. submarines have never been my thing, but the last two books i have read (chk out other reviews of mine) have really drawn me in.
the chapter on the cuban missile crisis, and incidents involving us and russian subs on covert ops are almost too much loike a hollywood script to be true.
it helps if you have some knowledge into naval terminology, but nevertheless landlubbers will become engrossed in this boolk too. ( )

This nonfiction story of submarine operations during the Cuban missile crisis and the overall Cold War should be a fascinating story. Traitors, conspiracy, secret missions, and near nuclear annihilation. How can it go wrong? I'm afraid that for me, it went wrong in the telling.

While Reed obviously put heart and soul into this book, it just didn't come together for me. Early on, there were two stories about bears and puppies that I didn't expect to find in a book like this, and I hated those stories. However, those were minor in my overall opinion of the book.

On the plus side, Mr. Reed and his father were both directly involved in the story, and I did enjoy learning of their activities. On the negative side, the author seemed to feel he had to give the nicknames of anyone who had one, and they were often mean-spirited. The book jumped between sometimes too-long technical descriptions and telling about the people involved in the missions. In describing people and in dialogue, the writing sometimes seemed clumsy. The overuse of similes was somewhat annoying, and the story felt disjointed to me.

The book made liberal use of acronyms throughout, as is expected whenever military jargon is involved, and the author did explain them the first time they were used. It would have been helpful to have a reference list of them. I would have also appreciated better maps, especially of the movement of submarines during the Cuban missile crisis. The sections of photographs were great.

There have been some active and occasionally heated discussions about the facts of this period, and whether or not the book has all the facts straight. I am not in a position to judge that, but I do find it interesting that there is still so much controversy. This wasn't the right read for me but I think that people more involved in the history of that time will find it an interesting and perhaps provocative book. ( )