FORGOTTEN BOOK: CODY'S ARMY

 Cody's Army by "Jim Case" (Stephen Mertz) (1986)

John Cody had gone to Princeton but he earned his real education in the jungles of Vietnam where he commanded a "hit and git" covert strike force.  After that war, the seasoned warrior went to work for the CIA, utilizing his infiltration and combat skills to do difficult jobs in the world's trouble spots.  Eventually that brought him to Nicaragua where he had been tasked to lead a team of questionable contras against a group of Sandanistas who holding four nuns suspected of aiding the contras.  Time was running out and the nuns would soon be tortured for whatever information they had.  Following a bloody fight that eliminated the Sandanistas, the contras turned their weapons on the nuns and executed them.  The supposed rescue turned out to be a rogue operation designed to discredit the Sandanistas.  The CIA field agent in charge of the operation was named Gorman.   Cody turned his gun on Gorman and his assistant and the contra, killing them all with the exception of Gorman, who managed to escape, wounded.  

A few weeks later the rogue CIA agent who had planned the operation was killed.  By then Cody was in custody.  Because the operation was unsanctioned, Cody was released.  He left the CIA and retreated to a mountaintop aerie in Canada, leaving no trace of his whereabouts, and where he spent his days drinking and trying to forget the horror he had seen. 

Fast forward fourteen months.  The CIA located Cody, and Pete Lund, who had headed the Company's assassination unit, sought him out.  Lund was now in charge of setting up a covert anti-terrorist guerilla unit for the CIA, on orders of the President.  Terrorists of all stripes where attacking Americans and American interests.  In many cases, a military response was impossible for either political or practical reasons.  The CIA wanted nothing to do with Cody, but the computers felt differently; no matter what parameters were used, Cody's name invariably appeared at the top of the list of those best suited to run the guerilla unit.  Cody would be given all the resources -- financial, strategic, and weaponry -- needed to complete a mission -- and he could pick his own team.

Cody chose his old team from Vietnam: Hawkeye Hawkins, a wise-cracking Texan sniper; Richard Caine, an explosives expert who had been kicked out of England's elite anti-terrorist force for insubordination; and Rufe Miller, a gigantic black who was an expert pilot.  The ten years that had passed since Vietnam had not softened any of them.  All were eager to work with Cody again and to serve their country and to kick some enemy butt.  As with the Mission:  Impossible team, all knowledge of "Cody's Army" would be disavowed if they were captured or killed.

Two weeks after Cody assembled his team they had their first mission.  A minor terrorist group know as the Palestine Liberation Guerilla Force (PLGF) had hijacked an Athens-Tel Aviv flight with over 120 passengers and crew.  Forcing the pilot to land in Beirut, they demanded that the release of 700 prisoners from the Israelis within 48 hours; otherwise, one passenger an hour would be executed.  To make their point, they executed an older couple who had been on their second honeymoon in front of news cameras.

The leader of the PLGF was Farouk Hassan, driven both by a religious fanaticism and by a hatred of the West.  His second in command was Abdel Khaled, a sadistic, bisexual who had become more devoted to killing for its own sake than to the Islamic cause.  Tahia Ahmed was devoted to the cause because of her love for Ali Hassan, the younger brother of Farouk; when Ali was killed by security agents, Tahia's rage was unleashed.  All three thought nothing of murdering their captives, who had been removed from the plane and transported to an unknown, highly fortified location somewhere in the area.

Cody's mission was to rescue the hostages.  Any collateral damage to the terrorists was secondary, albeit acceptable.  But first they had to locate the hostages, who could now be anywhere in a country torn apart by war and by the many terrorist groups competing for power.  Death in Beirut could come from anywhere and anyone.

With the aid of a gutsy female American reporter, a twelve-year-old street child, and a humungous amount of weapons, they managed to locate a powerful rebel leader who knew where the captives were held.  The fortress was double-walled, with armed patrols and guard towers, and about half a hundred armed PLGF followers.  And time was running out...

Cody's Army was the first of seven paperback originals in this series of men's action-adventure novels.  Violence is the code word here, but it is rightous violence on the part of the heroes -- Cody's enemies are cartoon stereotypes of the most evil of people and Cody is correct in blasting them away as graphically as possible.  As with most of its ilk, the series is a wish-fulfillment fantasy that hits the dark roots of the human psyche.  At its heart, the series is weapons-porn:

"The forty-four-caliber hand cannon roared, slamming a 240-grain bullet at 1,455 foot-pounds of muzzle energy into the Shiite's left eye.  It powered upward and then slanted to the side, blasting half the left side of the man's skull against the wall."

Walter Mitty on testosterone.  The pages drip machismo.

There's nothing wrong with that.  From James Bond to Dirty Harry, the idea of the vigilante is a time-honored tradition in our various cultures, providing a release mechanism from everyday aggravations.  Cody's Army is exciting, comic book-ish reading.

The man behind the "Jim Case" pseudonym is Stephen Mertz, a talented and prolific writer.   Early in his career he wote a number of men's action-adventure novels, including a dozen books in Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan, the Executioner series; Mertz's Bolan books are consdered to be some of the best in that series.  Mertz also created the Tunnel Rats series (as "Cliff Banks") and the Stone:  MIA Hunter series (as "Jack Buchanan").  Other authors, included Joe R. Lansdale and Bill Crider, contributed to some of the books.  Mertz's later books include mainstream thrillers and suspense novels.  He has been praised for his plotting and high-action style.  Whether it is in paranormal dark suspense, historical thrillers, hardboiled noir, political suspense, PI novels, or mysteries, you are in for a fast-paced thrill ride with Mertz at the wheel.

Recently, Mertz reimagined John Cody, who was a former marine in Cody's Army, as Jack Cody, a former Navy Seal in a series of edge of your seat action thrillers, Cody's War.