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Flash Point: A Military Thriller Where an F-14 Ace Declares Total War on the Terrorists Who Killed His Friend
F-14 flying ace Sean Woods has been ordered by the military to remain silent about the death of his best friend in a brutal terrorist attack and his government's reluctance to retaliate. But the maniacal leader of a resurrected society of assassins dating back to the eleventh century isn't going to be satisfied with the blood that has already been spilled. And a U.S. ally has offered Sean the opportunity for vengeance that his superiors have denied him -- though it means taking actions without their knowledge that could spark the most devastating air battle since World War II.
But if his own nation won't declare total war on a killer...Sean Woods will.
But if his own nation won't declare total war on a killer...Sean Woods will.
592 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 30, 2000
15 people are currently reading
177 people want to read
About the author
James W. Huston
11 books106 followersIn addition to being the author of Falcon Seven, Marine One, Secret Justice, Shadows of Power, Fallout, Flash Point, The Price of Power and Balance of Power, I am a partner in the international law firm of Morrison & Foerster, and head of the Trial Practice Group, and a former Navy Flight Officer in F-14s.
I grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana, and attended the University of South Carolina on a Navy ROTC scholarship, majoring in history, with a minor in English. During my senior summer, I did an exchange cruise with the French Navy on a destroyer, the EE Kersaint out of Brest (which was a wonderful experience and reinforced my decision to go into the Navy), and then attended the University of Warwick in England, to study English Reformation history and English literature.
After college, I received my Navy wings as a Naval Flight Officer and after F-14 training in San Diego, was assigned to VF-84, the Jolly Rogers, on the USS Nimitz. While in VF-84, I participated in making the movie, The Final Countdown, starring Kirk Douglas, Katherine Ross, and Martin Sheen. The filming for the movie was done in several places, but most of the flying was done out of Naval Air Station Key West, Florida. The entire movie crew was in Key West, and we would review the dailies (yesterday's filming) every night. I was asked to help direct a couple of scenes—the blowing up of the yacht by the Zeros, and the F-14 low-level flyby over Katherine Ross—as well as filming several other scenes with a Panavision camera in the back seat of the F-14. The DVD version of The Final Countdown was recently released. The producers pulled together the Jolly Rogers guys who did the flying, to create and "behind-the-scenes" bonus cut.
I did two Mediterranean cruises while in the Jolly Rogers, and other shorter cruises to the Caribbean and the North Atlantic. I was selected to attend TOPGUN and graduated before my second cruise.
After six years in the Navy, I left active duty in 1981 to attend the University of Virginia School of Law. After graduation, I joined the San Diego-based law firm, Gray Cary Ames & Frye, and began flying in the Navy Reserves. After a few years in the Reserves, I transferred from flying to Naval Intelligence. Naval intelligence was quite interesting and allowed me access to top secret information about world affairs and military developments. I was on active duty at JICPAC, the Joint Intelligence Center, Pacific Fleet, in Pearl Harbor, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, leading to Desert Storm. I got to see a lot about what happened behind the scenes in an event like that, and how much of importance never makes it to the press.
My writing career started in the form of op-eds for the Escondido Times Advocate and the San Diego Union-Tribune, covering current affairs topics. After numerous editorials, I decided to try fiction. Neither my first novel nor my second were accepted for publication. I went through several hundred rejection letters, and labored almost every night for five years before I had any hope of getting published. I've gone back and looked at those books since, and I could make them publishable now, but they weren't very good back then.
My third novel was different. It combined many areas of my personal experience into one story—military action, political intrigue, and Constitutional Law. I found a clause in the U.S. Constitution that hadn't been used since 1812, and asked the simple question: "What if it was used today? What would happen?"
The first published novel, Balance of Power (William Morrow, 1998), was optioned by Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney. The novel was adapted into a screenplay by Mark Baumbach, but was never made into a film.
Five more novels followed in the next five years—The Price of Power (William Morrow, 1999), Flash Point (William Morrow, 2000), Fallout (William Morrow, 2001), The Shadows of Power (William Morrow, 2002), and Secret Justice (William Morrow, 2003).
I grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana, and attended the University of South Carolina on a Navy ROTC scholarship, majoring in history, with a minor in English. During my senior summer, I did an exchange cruise with the French Navy on a destroyer, the EE Kersaint out of Brest (which was a wonderful experience and reinforced my decision to go into the Navy), and then attended the University of Warwick in England, to study English Reformation history and English literature.
After college, I received my Navy wings as a Naval Flight Officer and after F-14 training in San Diego, was assigned to VF-84, the Jolly Rogers, on the USS Nimitz. While in VF-84, I participated in making the movie, The Final Countdown, starring Kirk Douglas, Katherine Ross, and Martin Sheen. The filming for the movie was done in several places, but most of the flying was done out of Naval Air Station Key West, Florida. The entire movie crew was in Key West, and we would review the dailies (yesterday's filming) every night. I was asked to help direct a couple of scenes—the blowing up of the yacht by the Zeros, and the F-14 low-level flyby over Katherine Ross—as well as filming several other scenes with a Panavision camera in the back seat of the F-14. The DVD version of The Final Countdown was recently released. The producers pulled together the Jolly Rogers guys who did the flying, to create and "behind-the-scenes" bonus cut.
I did two Mediterranean cruises while in the Jolly Rogers, and other shorter cruises to the Caribbean and the North Atlantic. I was selected to attend TOPGUN and graduated before my second cruise.
After six years in the Navy, I left active duty in 1981 to attend the University of Virginia School of Law. After graduation, I joined the San Diego-based law firm, Gray Cary Ames & Frye, and began flying in the Navy Reserves. After a few years in the Reserves, I transferred from flying to Naval Intelligence. Naval intelligence was quite interesting and allowed me access to top secret information about world affairs and military developments. I was on active duty at JICPAC, the Joint Intelligence Center, Pacific Fleet, in Pearl Harbor, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, leading to Desert Storm. I got to see a lot about what happened behind the scenes in an event like that, and how much of importance never makes it to the press.
My writing career started in the form of op-eds for the Escondido Times Advocate and the San Diego Union-Tribune, covering current affairs topics. After numerous editorials, I decided to try fiction. Neither my first novel nor my second were accepted for publication. I went through several hundred rejection letters, and labored almost every night for five years before I had any hope of getting published. I've gone back and looked at those books since, and I could make them publishable now, but they weren't very good back then.
My third novel was different. It combined many areas of my personal experience into one story—military action, political intrigue, and Constitutional Law. I found a clause in the U.S. Constitution that hadn't been used since 1812, and asked the simple question: "What if it was used today? What would happen?"
The first published novel, Balance of Power (William Morrow, 1998), was optioned by Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney. The novel was adapted into a screenplay by Mark Baumbach, but was never made into a film.
Five more novels followed in the next five years—The Price of Power (William Morrow, 1999), Flash Point (William Morrow, 2000), Fallout (William Morrow, 2001), The Shadows of Power (William Morrow, 2002), and Secret Justice (William Morrow, 2003).
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 27, 2013
Great book, but you have to really be interested in the military to get a lot of the terminology. What is interesting is that is was published in 2000, but talks about declaring war against an individual terrorist and his followers rather than a sovereign nation. Also goes into the political/military consequences with the nation in which the terrorist is hiding. Almost seems like the author had a crystal ball.
February 3, 2020
What could have been a pretty good tale had the author not made it so ridiculous. A lieutenant going to the admiral's staff meeting and wanting him to set up a strike on Lebanon? A few chapters later he contacted the ship's JAG asking about declaring war on an individual so they could have an air strike? At that point it was time to put this aside.
Novels require a certain amount of nonsense, but this one was way over the top.
Novels require a certain amount of nonsense, but this one was way over the top.
May 2, 2018
First half of the book was very slow. Author went too in-depth about carrier operations, somewhat interesting stuff but very dry. Second half of the book was very good. Packed full of action and a fun story line. Biggest draw back for me was just how naïve the main character was about the government, for an officer in the US Navy he was made out to have the knowledge and reasoning skill of a jr high student learning about government. The author clearly has a good understanding of government just a flaw in the character he created.
November 22, 2022
First half of the book was very slow. Author went too in-depth about carrier operations, somewhat interesting stuff but very dry. I followed it easily. However, there were certain things in the book that were wrong. One thing I'll say for it is this: it is pretty long--14 hours plus. Too long. The main character was naive about the way that the military works. Finished it--couldn't wait to find out the reveal at the end.
October 27, 2017
I felt this book had potential. I wanted to enjoy it. I really did. At times, it was overly technical.
As a Navy vet, I followed it easily. However, there were certain things in the book that were wrong. It made me spend the rest of the book questioning how well the author did his research.
Also, the editor needs to be fired. Too many mistakes.
As a Navy vet, I followed it easily. However, there were certain things in the book that were wrong. It made me spend the rest of the book questioning how well the author did his research.
Also, the editor needs to be fired. Too many mistakes.
April 8, 2025
The audio version of this book is being narrated by Adams Morgan who is the most affected narrator with a very irritating cadence to his voice. The book is a bit weak, but the narration makes it impossible to listen to it.
November 16, 2017
Excellent
Good story, to bad F14 never went up against bad guys. Good aircraft, good radar and awesome power. Enjoyed the book.
Good story, to bad F14 never went up against bad guys. Good aircraft, good radar and awesome power. Enjoyed the book.
June 3, 2018
Finally found another one of his books!
March 26, 2023
Great non-stop action right from the start.
December 5, 2023
This book is preposterous, just an insane plot, but it was entertaining enough, I suppose.
March 6, 2017
This was a pretty good read. There were some twists to the story that really kept me guessing.
October 3, 2023
The dialogue in some areas was … janky? Awkward? I’m not entirely sure, but it was enough to pull me right out of the story. Not too mention almost every character interaction had a needless long—and boring—greetings attached to it.
Just a heads up, it’s okay to cut those out and get straight to the main part of the conversation. I don’t need to read ten lines of: “Hi.” “Hello.” “How are you?”“I’m good, you?” “I’m fine, thanks.” “Want some tea?” “Yes, that’d be great.” “Wonderful, have a seat and I’ll be right out.”
Also, in the beginning, mostly, there was a lot of word repetitions which irks me just a little. There was one scene where he said the word ‘boat’ like three times in a two sentence period. But that seemed to taper off towards the end of the book … or I just got used to it, not entirely sure.
The plot is alright. I felt a little whiplash as one minute he’s barging into the Admiral’s quarters, foaming at the mouth over the injustice of his murdered friend, then the next, he’s teasing his bunk mate by turning the lights on and off. Then he’s seething angry again, writing letters to his congressman and waking a JAG officer up at 3 a.m., then he’s joking around in the mess hall again right after.
Had a very slow start with lots of technical terms, but they’re explained at least. I’ve read some books like this where it’s clear the audience in mind was meant to be soldiers stationed on board these carriers—no explanations given to the terms.
It picks up a bit after page 200 (at least, it did for me).
Woods’s dialogue annoyed me at times. He came across very preachy and in a few instances, he was preaching about things he’d already discussed before. And it wasn’t like the author was giving us a recap much later in the story to bring forward an important piece of information. No, these ‘recaps’ would happen in the same chapters, or the next chapter—while they were still fresh in the readers heads.
The characters seems alright. They had a different enough voice from each other that they had a bit of personality.
Several lines in the book made me giggle. Several descriptions had me tasting salt water in the air.
Overall, I feel this story could’ve been trimmed back by about 50-100 pages, making it much tighter and pleasant to read. At some point, I was having to force myself to pick it back up again, and that’s never fun.
The ending wasn’t horrible.
Just a heads up, it’s okay to cut those out and get straight to the main part of the conversation. I don’t need to read ten lines of: “Hi.” “Hello.” “How are you?”“I’m good, you?” “I’m fine, thanks.” “Want some tea?” “Yes, that’d be great.” “Wonderful, have a seat and I’ll be right out.”
Also, in the beginning, mostly, there was a lot of word repetitions which irks me just a little. There was one scene where he said the word ‘boat’ like three times in a two sentence period. But that seemed to taper off towards the end of the book … or I just got used to it, not entirely sure.
The plot is alright. I felt a little whiplash as one minute he’s barging into the Admiral’s quarters, foaming at the mouth over the injustice of his murdered friend, then the next, he’s teasing his bunk mate by turning the lights on and off. Then he’s seething angry again, writing letters to his congressman and waking a JAG officer up at 3 a.m., then he’s joking around in the mess hall again right after.
Had a very slow start with lots of technical terms, but they’re explained at least. I’ve read some books like this where it’s clear the audience in mind was meant to be soldiers stationed on board these carriers—no explanations given to the terms.
It picks up a bit after page 200 (at least, it did for me).
Woods’s dialogue annoyed me at times. He came across very preachy and in a few instances, he was preaching about things he’d already discussed before. And it wasn’t like the author was giving us a recap much later in the story to bring forward an important piece of information. No, these ‘recaps’ would happen in the same chapters, or the next chapter—while they were still fresh in the readers heads.
The characters seems alright. They had a different enough voice from each other that they had a bit of personality.
Several lines in the book made me giggle. Several descriptions had me tasting salt water in the air.
Overall, I feel this story could’ve been trimmed back by about 50-100 pages, making it much tighter and pleasant to read. At some point, I was having to force myself to pick it back up again, and that’s never fun.
The ending wasn’t horrible.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2007
Eh.
I needed a book to read. This one was sitting around our house. It was sort of a military spy intrigue kinda thing. As long as they stuck to the political intrigue, I found it pretty engaging. The problem is they kept drifting into dogfight descriptions peppered with military acronyms that meant nothing to me. Perhaps if I'd taken notes from the beginning of the book I would have been okay, but that's more work than I'm willing to put in for a light read.
Ironically, by the time I finished the book, the political intrigue part was also a bit of a letdown. I kept figuring there was something very clever going on. Not so. It was pretty much exactly as I figured. So take a book with a predictable plot, a lot of acronyms I can't understand, and populate it with characters that seem completely naive and unrealistic, and this is pretty much what you get. One thing I'll say for it is this: it is pretty long. So it kept me busy for a while. But I wish I'd grabbed a different book to keep myself busy.
I needed a book to read. This one was sitting around our house. It was sort of a military spy intrigue kinda thing. As long as they stuck to the political intrigue, I found it pretty engaging. The problem is they kept drifting into dogfight descriptions peppered with military acronyms that meant nothing to me. Perhaps if I'd taken notes from the beginning of the book I would have been okay, but that's more work than I'm willing to put in for a light read.
Ironically, by the time I finished the book, the political intrigue part was also a bit of a letdown. I kept figuring there was something very clever going on. Not so. It was pretty much exactly as I figured. So take a book with a predictable plot, a lot of acronyms I can't understand, and populate it with characters that seem completely naive and unrealistic, and this is pretty much what you get. One thing I'll say for it is this: it is pretty long. So it kept me busy for a while. But I wish I'd grabbed a different book to keep myself busy.
February 21, 2016
Military novel - Sean Woods - a naval aviator, whose roommate has been killed by a terrorist group while on leave in Israel, seeks revenge. His Congressman, the CIA and the Israelis become involved in a plan to bomb the terrorist stronghold in Iran.
April 7, 2008
Too much technical flight information for me.
March 28, 2011
Great military thrill ride!
August 18, 2011
OK book. Highly technical descriptions of naval aviators doing their job.
August 20, 2011
Great fast paced read.
January 24, 2013
Slow and not up to his usual standard.
January 8, 2014
The book was excellent. It had a very exciting plot. The book involved a lot of action and so it was very hard to put it down. It was written very well and so I just kept wanting to read it.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews