Never mind the fact that, based upon my experience as a Bradley platoon leader from 1993-4, I find it impossible to imagine a woman becoming an infantry officer with as few problems and confrontations as Lt. Kozak seems to encounter in this book. Never mind the fact that a platoon leader has 30 or so soldiers, yet there were maybe 4 or 5 at all mentioned, let alone developed, as characters in this novel. And never mind the fact that a reader gets zero sense of what it is actually like to be inside a Bradley in training or in combat (I have not experienced the latter, and can't picture it after this novel). The real problem is, Coyle can't write. This example sentence will make my point better than any conclusion I could pen myself: 'With the grace and determination of a wire-guided antitank guided missile, Dixon moved towards the refrigerator.' I don't know about you, but I could probably figure out that a wire-guided missile was, indeed, guided. 'Nuff said.

A good effort from Coyle......

All things considered, Trial by Fire was an enjoyable book. I have read a number of Coyle's novels, some of which featured Lt. Nancy Kozak. In Trial by Fire, I had the opportunity to go back to the introduction of Lt. Kozak. The story was not as tight or compelling as some of Coyle's other works, but it was a solid work nonetheless. The plot started quickly with the overthrow of the Mexican government and increased tension between Mexico and the US. The rising anxieties, escalating conflict and troubled negotiations were certainly plausible. For Coyle fans, this novel is worth the time. I am glad that I went back to pick this up.

The first Harold Coyle book I've read and I must say I enjoyed it a lot. Although the book suffers from technical and factual errors/flaws, it succeeds in making me care or hate the characters. This being Coyle's fourth book, he is even more comfortable developing his characters and effectively introduce new ones. The romance between officer Scott Dixon and reporter Jan Fields feels more comfortable, and not as forced although they all seem to get conveniently involved in every major conflict throughout the series.

Part of the story is told from the point of view of a woman who's about to become a commander of her own platon unit. Her experiences and adventures in the book alone make for a very interesting story in itself. Some scenes I enjoyed: one officer can't help but stare at her breast, another one where she needs napkins, and what a well-rested soldier looks like. Kozak's story into the military is a somewhat ideal presentation of the author, and so don't expect a highly realistic exploration of integration of women into the American military. But if the author were more serious, we should see other infantrywomen besides Kozak.

The battle scenes are not as descriptive this time. The first day of war but when you start reading that part, you're already in the middle where US troops suffer huge casualties. The Mexicans are shown as highly motivated and seemingly well-trained for this war. And there's something corny when the troops talk to the main Mexican character, Col. Guajardo. And Mexico seems to be described as a utterly poor country than it actually is. Hey, my Diamond Supra modems are made in Mexico.

It's not directly mentioned, but the story does take place in 1995. The president's name was never mentioned in the book but if it was Bill Clinton, he would have to have done something right if he's re-elected 1996 because the president here handles the crisis poorly. :)

I have the book with a cover w/ a painting of a Bradley IFV with the US and Mexican flag in the background. This is a better looking cover than the bland red cover you see in this webpage.

Dead Hand is an example of what happens when a good author runs out of ideas.

The plot is appealing enough - we Americans LOVE renegade Russian generals - but even that may be starting to wear a little thin. Unfortunately the characters need lots more work, the story line seems to be jumbled collection of disconnected scenarios, and the small unit combat actions - the passages which Harold Coyle has always been so good at - are pretty much absent from the book.

Mr. Coyle's musings on the nature of military leadership are borrowed from Ted Fehrenbach's study of Korea, "This Kind of War" and the description of the meteor strike reminds me a little too much of Niven and Pournelle's "Lucifer's Hammer".

Dead Hand leaves me with the feeling that the book was written in a great rush to meet a contract date. It also leaves me feeling that a good writer has become burnt out.

This book didn't have the same amount of military action as other Coyle novels like "Team Yankee" or "Sword Point," but with all the great characters it didn't matter. One of my favorites had to be Sergeant-Chef Stanislaus Dombrowski of the French Foreign Legion. He provided a great insight into the kind of brotherhood formed among troops in elite units. I also really liked Russian commando Colonel Demetre Orlov. He's what I would call subtly ruthless and loyal to the State, until he's ordered to go after the General in charge of the Perimeter missiles about to go off due to an asteroid strike in Siberia. Toward the end of the book Orlov is seriously confused as to what his course of action should be.

Coyle did an excellent job fleshing out all his characters. Some of his descriptions of the devastation caused by the asteroid and the harsh conditions the NATO special ops units must face were pretty good. Not too many combat scenes, but Coyle made up for it at the end with a rollercoaster ride of a battle at the last Perimeter silo. The epilogue where one SAS officer gives his view on duty to one's country perfectly summed up the theme of this book.

Coyle has proven that he has grown as a writer. Quite frankly, I think some of his characters in "Dead Hand" were better than Colonel Scott Dixon and company in previous novels. Bully for Mr. Coyle and "Dead Hand."

As a big military novel fan, Harold Coyle is one of my favorite authors. No one captures the individual emotionality of going to war -- the apprehension, the camaraderie, the burdens of leadership, and the hardships of combat -- better than Harold Coyle.

Mr. Coyle's novels usually highlight a specific theater of operations, be it Iran (Sword Point), Egypt (Bright Star), the Civil War (Savage Wilderness and Until the End, which, incidentally, are two of his best), Columbia (Code of Honor), Mexico (Trial By Fire), or, more recently, Slovakia (God's Children), rather than playing on a world stage, like say a Tom Clancy.

In his effort to feature elite troops from the British SAS, the French Foreign Legion and the American Special Forces Group, and to pit them against experienced Russian commandos, Mr. Coyle attempts one of his most ambitious works to-date.

The international premise, and its establishment in the first half of the novel, unfortunately, is highly implausible. Without divulging all of the specifics, let's just say it involves an asteroid hitting the earth and a rogue Russian general using this natural catastrophe to leverage his regional nuclear weapons to blackmail Moscow and the West. The regional commandeering of the missiles is made possible by a secret doomsday mechanism (code named Dead Hand, and reminiscent of the doomsday device in the movie classic, Dr. Strangelove), which is triggered coincidentally by the errant meterorite.

Fortunately, Mr. Coyle's emotional description of battle is without peer, and true fans of his will find the second half of the book as riveting as any of his earlier works.

Mr. Coyle's story, on a geopolitical plane, doesn't achieve the level of intrigue and complexity of a Tom Clancy novel. But even Tom Clancy doesn't capture the emotional view from the field as well as Harold Coyle. Mr. Coyle's novels aren't just about war and conflict; they are about personal sacrifices made for the accomplishment of a greater goal (which is, of course, a great metaphor for life in general and why his books are so meaningful).

If you'd like to experience the timeless and universal anguish and elation felt by all men and women (combatants) in war; and if you'd like to believe that there are causes in this world more noble than those faced by most of us in our everyday lives, Harold Coyle's Dead Hand is a very satisfying read. I enjoyed it immensely.