EDGE OF VALOR

A TO D D I N G R A M NO V E L
By JOHN J. GOBBELL






















Having skippered his battered
destroyer through deadly kamikaze
attacks, twice Navy Cross recipient
Todd Ingram is rewarded by
Washington with a new and even more
perilous secret mission. Gobbell will
keep his readers up until dawn to
discover if Ingram can possibly
accomplish or even survive his hair-
raising assignment to foil a bold Soviet
planned invasion of Hokkaido from
Sakhalinbefore the ink is dry on
Japans surrender.
PETE WILSON, former governor of
California and former U.S. senator (Armed
Services Committee)

Jack Gobbell knows how to tell a story, and Edge of
Valor is a corking good onecombining the final days
of World War II in the Pacific and the beginning of the
Cold War. Gobbell skillfully weaves fascinating, well-
drawn fictional characters into historical situations and
thus makes a learning experience out of gripping drama.
Along the way, he gives such real-life characters as Gen.
Douglas MacArthur, Adm. Chester Nimitz, Adm. John
S. McCain Sr., and even Arturo Toscanini walk-on parts
that are often almost as interesting as his main
characters. Edge of Valor is, in short, a compelling and
well-researched work of historical fiction.
STANLEY CLOUD, former Washington bureau chief of
Time magazine and author of fiction and nonfiction including
The Murrow Boys: Pioneers in the Front Lines of Broadcast
Journalism

Far better than a yarn. Edge of Valor has vivid
historical characters and heart. Like no other historical
novel, it brings to life the new world order that followed
World War II and is still emerging as the cause of
turmoil in the western Pacific continues to shift.
SETH CROPSEY, author of Mayday: The Decline of
American Naval Supremacy

John Gobbells latest book, Edge of Valor, is another
triumph in this series. It is historical fiction at its best.
He is a master of the details of the battle actions of our
World War II destroyers and extends his tale to include
the beginning of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
REAR ADM. HANK MCKINNEY, USN (RET.), author of
Flotsam & Jetsam


A BOOK FOR REVI EW


NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS BOOK NEWS






DGE OF VALOR is the fifth thriller by John J. Gobbell featuring the World War II exploits of
Cdr. Todd Ingram, commanding officer of the destroyer USS Maxwell (DD 525) who saves
his ship when it is hit by a kamikaze off Okinawa. For repairs, they pull into Kerama Rhetto,
Okinawa, where they receive news of the wars end. Ingram expects to be shipped home like the
rest of his crew but instead receives orders to fly to Manila, where he is met by Brig. Gen. Otis
Dewitt, an Army buddy from his days on Corregidor who is now intelligence aide to Gen. Richard
K. Sutherland, chief of staff to General MacArthur. On Ingrams C-54 are sixteen Japanese senior
military and civilian diplomats who meet with Sutherland to discuss formal surrender arrangements.
Two days later the terms are settled and Ingram is working with one of the Japanese delegates to
ensure that mines laid in Tokyo Bay are neutralized, allowing for safe passage of more than two
hundred Allied ships. While Ingram is promised that he can attend the surrender ceremony on
board the USS Missouri (BB 63), DeWitt, in concert with the State Department, has an ulterior
motive and sends Ingram to Karafuto (Sakhalin Island, according to Soviet maps) to defuse a Soviet
attack on Hokkaido, the northernmost home island of Japan. Ingrams old adversary, Edward
Dezhnev, is the brigade commander responsible for laying siege to a Japanese holdout garrison in
Toro, a natural jumping-off place for an attack on Hokkaido.
Also in Toro, DeWitt explains, is Walter Boring, a Red Cross representative holding two
crates of overwhelming photographic evidence of Japans experiments on live human beings in
China. Ingram is expected to return with those crates, but how can he when Boring is being
protected by the Japanese garrison in Toro, where Dezhnev and his troops stand ready to overpower
them at any moment?
As his shipmates prepare to return to their loved ones, Ingrams war continues. Three weeks
earlier he had been fighting the Japanese, and the Russians were supposed to be friends. Now he
doesnt know whom to trust


JOHN J. GOBBELL is the author of seven World War II thrillers about the U.S. Navy in the Pacific,
including A Call to Colors, The Neptune Strategy, and When Duty Whispers Low. Edge of Valor is
the fifth of five stand-alone novels in the Todd Ingram series. Gobbell is a former naval officer who
served as a weapons officer in a destroyer. He lives in Newport Beach, CA.


EDGE OF VALOR: A Todd Ingram Novel
By John J. Gobbell
Publication date: 15 July 2014
344 pp., 2 maps. Hardcover list price: $34.95 24.95
ISBN: 978-1-61251-519-9 Fiction War & Military eBook edition also available.
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