Flagship Down

Troy Barclay/Amber Neilson #6

by Daniel A. Adams

Troy and Amber’s “vacation” turns into the vacation from hell when on their first night at sea, their cruise ship rams a mysterious freighter that is running without lights and loaded with $300 million in cash and $ 1 billion in cocaine. Earlier in the day, a new cartel under the leadership of Dimas Valdez, stole the drugs from two large cartels and slaughtered their leaders and men in Columbia’s largest firefight in the history of the country. With both halves of the freighter hanging off the sides of the cruise ship, and the men on board in immediate danger of drowning, a misinformed captain decides to bring the endangered men on board. It is a fateful decision because as soon as the armed men are on board the cruise ship, they split up into groups and hijack the cruise ship.

After taking over the bridge, and control of the ship, Valdez has his men herd the 6,000 sleepy and injured passengers, and 3,000 sleepy and injured crewmen into the three largest venues aboard the ship where they are held captive by trigger-happy, armed guards. Troy and Amber, caught up in the rescue operation and treatment of injured passengers and crew, first become aware of the hijackers when five men burst into the main dining room that Amber, Troy and several passengers have turned into a triage unit. Amber wisely calls Troy “Doctor Barclay” (he is a trained paramedic and Amber is an RN) and it becomes his nom de guerre for the rest of the voyage.

While treating the injured, Troy develops a plan to beat the hijackers and sets it in motion: His plan is to pick off the hijackers one at a time using a hidden dumb waiter to get out of the kitchen where he is being held. It is a dangerous mission but after saving four crewmen from execution, he adds them to his plan. But everything changes when Troy discovers Valdez has a plan, too, a plan to transfer the money and cocaine to another ship that is on its way and blow up the cruise ship to cover his flight. To add to their workload, Troy and Amber discover there is a serial killer who is raping women passengers and then killing them.

Dispatched to board the cruise ship and save the passengers and crew, a Navy SEAL platoon rafts to the side of the cruise ship but a dirty agent in the DEA SWAT team warns Valdez of the raid and he sets an ambush for the platoon. Only Troy’s last second warning saves the team but it also exposes Troy’s scheme and Valdez takes Amber hostage and gives Troy an ultimatum: turn himself in or he will kill Amber. In suspense, tension-filled confrontation, Troy and Amber’s commitment to each other and the passengers is tested to the limit. Someone must die but Amber’s absolute faith in Troy gives them an edge that might save the day.

389 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 8, 2014

About the author

After graduating from Arizona State University with degrees in Zoology and Accounting, Mr. Adams joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation where, as a Special Agent, he investigated general crimes such as bank robberies, kidnappings and extortions as well as specializing in complex financial crimes as a forensic accountant. Mr. Adams went on to work for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as an investigator where he worked bank fraud and embezzlement cases. He has been a licensed commercial and residential contractor and built and developed many housing units. As a lark, he signed on with a small Hollywood literary agency where he worked as a literary agent for many years. While working as an agent, he wrote several scripts and the third one was made into a movie called SECOND CHANCES. Since then he has written, directed and produced a number of award-winning shorts and several feature films. Mr. Adams decided to turn several of his scripts into novels and has six of them on Amazon, including the best-seller, FIRST LADY DOWN.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've followed "The Highly Improbable Adventures of Troy and Amber" for six books now. While I enjoy the characters (and most of the stories), I'm not sure I'll be able to continue for all 25 (so far) books in the series.

I find myself shaking my head at some of the editing errors left in the text (Groucho MARKS? Really?) and wondering if Mr. Adams only used spellcheck to verify whether words were spelled correctly, not if they were used appropriately. Missing or misplaced punctuation is also annoying, as are the abrupt changes of POV without any warning.

[Kenn Goslin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Barc---whooo???

Lots of action, deception & a great kid!!! You never know what you're capable of until you do it. Any takers?

[Bernie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flag Ship Down review

Flag Ship Down is the sixth book in the Troy Barclay and Amber Neilson series written by author Daniel Adams. Tremendous series so far.