Kane's War (Ben Kane #1) (1987)

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by Nick Stone



Ben Kane peacefully runs a successful charter boat business in the Virgin Islands until his past catches up with him. 


"Serpents in Paradise" (Finnish)

That past included a stint as a riverboat captain in Vietnam, followed by a stretch as a CIA operative. 



In his last mission, Kane had tricked his handler, Cord Weaver, into thinking that a million dollars was lost at sea along with a boatload of dead drug dealers. 



Actually, it became seed money for his business. Eight years later, more shady characters show up to torture him into revealing the location of his stash, and Weaver returns to pressure him into helping the Company deal with the influx of communists and drug runners into the islands. The resulting adventure is pretty well-written but not terribly memorable. One thing I appreciated about Kane was that, despite being the usual studly he-man, he is also a bit of a klutz, getting knocked out, shot, and beaten up numerous times. Plenty of sex and decent dialogue.

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