The Righteous Arrows

I am a massive fan of historic fiction; it is a fantastic way of bringing the past to life. It depends on the author how heavily they lean on the historic part or the fiction part. Some books are thinly disguised pseudo fantasy held together by a whisper of historic accuracy, while others read like real stories, that happen to be told by fictional characters. Brian J. Morra’s The Righteous Arrows follows the realistic approach to recent history. The Cold War may feel like only yesterday to some of us, but in reality, it is history, and ripe for storytelling. 

Captain Kevin Cattani is resting up on an Air Force base in Western Germany after helping prevent nuclear war. His first thoughts are to heal up, but his superiors see him as the ideal man for another black op behind the Iron Curtain. Cattani once more finds himself on the front line of both the intelligence world and real fighting between the US and USSR. Meanwhile, his counterpart over in Russia, Ivan Levchenko, is not allowed to enjoy the success of stopping a nuclear war either. He is thrown into Russian politics and their war in Afghanistan. Unbeknownst to one another Cattani and Levchenko are on a path to meet up once more. 

I do not read a lot of fiction set in the contemporary world (and I count the 1980s as contemporary) because I am unable to believe the action of the characters. I am happy following a Hobbit on a long journey, or a spaceship above and beyond, but a romantic tale or modern thriller? As soon as someone makes an inane decision or something happens that feels faux, I am taken out of the story. These things are easier to hide in genre fiction, but when dealing with lived experiences, you must keep things real. Righteous is perfect at doing this. 

Jack Higgins is an all-time favourite of mine, but his stories are so farfetched to be fantasies in their own right. Righteous is a military thriller and feels professionally researched. Too often main characters in books are rash and flippant, but people in the military would not last long like this. Righteous is told from two perspectives; Cattani and Levchenko. Both are decent men, levelheaded and intelligent. It was refreshing to read a book with competent characters doing as good a job as they could with the tools given them.  

Righteous is split into sections as the story moves from eastern Germany to Afghanistan. It touches on Washington and Moscow in between. At times, the book is dry, like a military procedural novel, but these are the parts I enjoyed the most, witnessing how military personnel act both at home and in the field. Because we know both Cattani and Levchenko’s history, it makes seeing them in live fire action even more intense. 

Morra was not required to pad out the drama in the book as the setting of The Cold War and covert ops in Afghanistan are thrilling enough. There is some relationship element in the book, but it is pushed to the side when the men are sent abroad. We learn about what it is to be stationed away from loved ones and how people cope with seeing action and the death of colleagues. 

Readers looking for heightened and false action will need to look elsewhere for their military fiction thrills. Morra focuses on a slower pace and more believable path, on two men who may fight on different sides, but who do not see the world that differently. I was happy to spend time with competent military personnel and to follow them on their journey, and I will be happy to read more about them in the future.