Book picks similar to
The Med by David Poyer


fiction
military
military-fiction
naval-fiction

Ghost Sniper


David Healey - 2014
    On the dawn of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, two snipers find themselves fighting a battle all their own. One is a backwoods hunter from the Appalachian Mountains in the American South, while the other is the dreaded German “Ghost Sniper” who earned his nickname on the Eastern Front. Locked in a deadly duel across the hedgerow country of France, the hunter matches wits and tactics against the marksman, both of them one bullet away from victory—or defeat—as Allied forces struggle to gain a foothold in Europe.

Voyage of the Devilfish


Michael DiMercurio - 1992
    Now it has put out to sea, lurking beneath the polar ice cap. In command is the most brilliant officer the Soviet fleet has ever produced—Admiral Alexi Novskoyy. And in his fanatical hands is the power to turn back the clock to the Cold War…and begin the countdown to doomsday. Opposing him is the killer chase sub USS Devilfish, captained by Commander Michael Pacino—a dogged veteran of the American fleet. His orders are to hunt down and destroy the Russian vessel. But his personal mission is to settle an old score with Novskoyy—the man who killed his father. The ultimate undersea duel is about to begin…

Ramage


Dudley Pope - 1964
    In a daring foray, under the very nose of the French Mediterranean fleet, Lieutenant Lord Nicholas Ramage is to sail his tiny cutter close in to the Italian shore and rescue a party of stranded aristocrats from Napoleon's fast-advancing army.

The Edge of Honor


P.T. Deutermann - 1994
    Brian Holcomb is about to embark on an eight-month tour of duty that will bring him one step away from commanding his own ship.A woman tempted by desire...On the homefront, his beautiful wife Maddy is lonely and confused-tantalized by a seductive stranger and an act of betrayal every Navy man dreads, even more than an enemy's face.A ship at war with itself...Aboard the guided-missile frigate USS John Bell Hood, he will witness a ship spinning in a tidal pool of recklessness-its crew wasted by drugs, its brass losing its grip on command.The Edge of HonorAnd now, as the Hood steams towards an explosive showdown with North Vietnam's killer MiGs, he will be forced to make the most agonizing choice of his life-one that could make his career...or damn his soul.With his stunning new thriller, The Edge of Honor, P.T. Deutermann unfurls at full display the mastery he hinted at so brilliantly with his debut Scorpion in the Sea.

The Good Shepherd


C.S. Forester - 1955
    A convoy of thirty-seven merchant ships is ploughing through icy, submarine-infested North Atlantic seas during the most critical days of World War II, when the German submarines had the upper hand and Allied shipping was suffering heavy losses. In charge is Commander George Krause, an untested veteran of the U.S. Navy. Hounded by a wolf pack of German U-boats, he faces 48 hours of desperate peril trapped on the bridge of the ship. Exhausted beyond measure, he must make countless and terrible decisions as he leads his small fighting force against the relentless U-boats.

Master and Commander


Patrick O'Brian - 1969
    Meanwhile—after a heated first encounter that nearly comes to a duel—Aubrey and a brilliant but down-on-his-luck physician, Stephen Maturin, strike up an unlikely rapport. On a whim, Aubrey invites Maturin to join his crew as the Sophie’s surgeon. And so begins the legendary friendship that anchors this beloved saga set against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars.Through every ensuing adventure on which Aubrey and Maturin embark, from the witty parley of their lovers and enemies to the roar of broadsides as great ships close in battle around them, O’Brian “provides endlessly varying shocks and surprises—comic, grim, farcical and tragic.… [A] whole, solidly living world for the imagination to inhabit” (A. S. Byatt).

The Guernseyman


C. Northcote Parkinson - 1982
    Ranked as a midshipman, when the events of the American Revolution and the ongoing hostilities between France and England send him across the sea, Delancey finds himself instrumental in defending the Isle of Jersey, and later, the Rock of Gibraltar.

Power Play


Rick Campbell - 2019
     The Russians have their newest class of nuclear attack submarine and is taking it, K-561 Kazan, on a shakedown cruise. Unbeknownst to them, however, this new submarine is being followed by an American submarine, the USS Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh is to gather any intelligence they can on this new Russian submarine while avoiding detection by the Russians. But what first appears to be the rollout of a new type of submarine, might well be something completely different. Instead the Pittsburgh witness a torpedo firing exercise—and the radical new technology might well not be the submarine, but the torpedo.

Word of Honor


Nelson DeMille - 1985
    But a lifetime ago Ben Tyson was a lieutenant in Vietnam.There the men under his command committed a murderous atrocity and together swore never to tell the world what they had done.Now the press, army justice, and the events he tried to forget have caught up with Ben Tyson. His family, his career, and his personal sense of honor hang in the balance. And only one woman can reveal the truth of his past and set him free."

Weapons of Choice


John Birmingham - 2004
    . . . The impossible has spawned the unthinkable. A military experiment in the year 2021 has thrust an American-led multinational armada back to 1942, right into the middle of the U.S. naval task force speeding toward Midway Atoll—and what was to be the most spectacular U.S. triumph of the entire war. Thousands died in the chaos, but the ripples had only begun. For these veterans of Pearl Harbor—led by Admirals Nimitz, Halsey, and Spruance—have never seen a helicopter, or a satellite link, or a nuclear weapon. And they’ve never encountered an African American colonel or a British naval commander who was a woman and half-Pakistani. While they embrace the armada’s awesome firepower, they may find the twenty-first century sailors themselves far from acceptable.Initial jubilation at news the Allies would win the war is quickly doused by the chilling realization that the time travelers themselves—by their very presence—have rendered history null and void. Celebration turns to dread when the possibility arises that other elements of the twenty-first century task force may have also made the trip—and might now be aiding Yamamoto and the Japanese.What happens next is anybody’s guess—and everybody’s nightmare. . . .From the Trade Paperback edition.

Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War


P.W. Singer - 2015
    The United States, China, and Russia eye each other across a twenty-first century version of the Cold War, which suddenly heats up at sea, on land, in the air, in outer space, and in cyberspace. The fighting involves everything from stealthy robotic–drone strikes to old warships from the navy’s “ghost fleet.” Fighter pilots unleash a Pearl Harbor–style attack; American veterans become low-tech insurgents; teenage hackers battle in digital playgrounds; Silicon Valley billionaires mobilize for cyber-war; and a serial killer carries out her own vendetta. Ultimately, victory will depend on blending the lessons of the past with the weapons of the future.Ghost Fleet is a page-turning speculative thriller in the spirit of The Hunt for Red October. The debut novel by two leading experts on the cutting edge of national security, it is unique in that every trend and technology featured in the novel — no matter how sci-fi it may seem — is real, or could be soon.

The Eagle's Claw: A Novel of the Battle of Midway


Jeff Shaara - 2021
    The United States is reeling from the blow the Japanese inflicted at Pearl Harbor. But the Americans are determined to turn the tide. The key comes from Commander Joe Rochefort, a little known "code breaker" who cracks the Japanese military encryption. With Rochefort's astonishing discovery, Admiral Chester Nimitz will know precisely what the Japanese are planning.But the battle to counter those plans must still be fought.From the American side, the shocking conflict is seen through the eyes of Rochefort and Admiral Nimitz, as well as fighter pilot Lieutenant Percy "Perk" Baker and Marine Gunnery Sergeant Doug Ackroyd.On the Japanese side, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is the mastermind. His key subordinates are Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, aging and infirm, and Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi, a firebrand who has no patience for Nagumo's hesitation. Together, these two men must play out the chess game designed by Yamamoto, without any idea that the Americans are anticipating their every move on the sea and in the air.Jeff Shaara recounts in electrifying detail what happens when these two sides finally meet, in what will be known ever after as one of the most definitive and heroic examples of combat ever seen. In The Eagle's Claw, he recounts, with his trademark you-are-there immediacy and signature depth of research, one single battle that changed not only the outcome of a war but the course of our entire global history.The story of Midway has been told many times, but never before like this.

Thunder at Dawn


Alan Evans - 1978
    David Cochrane Smith, captain of the armoured cruiser HMS Thunder, is patrolling off the coast of South America. But then he attacks and sinks the Gerda, a neutral ship in a neutral port. Smith already has a reputation as a maverick and now he faces professional ruin for the sinking. But he is certain he was right, that the Gerda was one of two ships masquerading under neutral flags that are in fact supply vessels for the mighty German warships, Kondor and Wolf. Only an outdated cruiser and a young captain prepared to break all the rules stand in their way… Thunder At Dawn is an edge-of-the-seat naval adventure that combines thrilling story-telling with meticulous research. Perfect for readers of Alexander Fullerton, Julian Stockwin and Philip McCutchan.

Avenger


Frederick Forsyth - 2003
    But Dexter is no ordinary man.The summer before he goes to college, Ricky Colenso travels to Bosnia to volunteer as an aid worker. A few weeks later, he disappears and is never heard from again. A family grieves and is offered little hope--in the fog of that horrible time and place, the killer, too, has vanished.Or so it would seem. For in a world that has forgotten right and wrong, there are few like Cal Dexter who can settle the score. And so, years later, a worldwide chase is on and Dexter begins to draw a net around the killer. But this time CIA agent Paul Devereux must find a way to stop Dexter before his quest for vengeance throws the world into chaos.A heart-stopping novel of murder and mystery, double-cross and triple-cross, old loyalties and new hatreds, Avenger has all of Frederick Forsyth's page-turning trademarks.

Rules Of Engagement


Gordon Kent - 1999
    Navy Intelligence officer, is posted to one of two aircraft carriers headed toward the Persian Gulf. On board the other is his father. When both take part in a nighttime strike on the Iranian coast, Lt. Craik's father's A-6 is hit and plunges into the sea.Shocked by the loss of this commanding figure in his life, Craik refuses to accept the official explanation that a lucky strike from an Iranian missile has downed the plane. After further investigation his instincts tell him the real story is much more disturbing: someone on his father's ship sabotaged his plane and he's still on board. The hunt becomes increasingly urgent when Craik discovers that the Navy may be harboring not just one traitor, but two: a father-and-son team who have been betraying their country for years. As Craik gets closer and closer to uncovering them, they will risk everything to keep their secrets.