Book Review: The Ambassador's Son

This book is a masterpiece at blending of fact and fiction while keeping it interesting and fast-paced. Finding real people depicted in the pages lulls us into thinking we know what is going to happen all along. Hickam surprises us at every turn!

If you like a well told story, woven with great characters, you'll want to get this book and read it from cover to cover.

"The Ambassadors Son" is Homer Hickam's new sequel to "The Keeper's Son." Set in the South Seas, it fictionalizes John F. Kennedy's time during World War II and mixes in Hickam's own cast of beloved characters introduced in his previous novel.

Coast Guard Captain Josh Thurlow and his assorted crew are now on special assignment in the Solomon Islands. As with any Hickam book, this one is well researched and weaves a seamless blend of fact and fiction. Hickam has taken the PT-109 incident that Kennedy himself wrote about and embellishes it with a fascinating occurrence of his own that incorporates the seamen from "The Keeper's Son."

I was thrilled to see our old friends in this newest book from Hickam, once again knee deep in adventure and danger. This fictional story challenges our American history textbook "hero" view of Kennedy and, somehow, makes this young Kennedy more believable and humane. Hold on, as we are taken on a daring ride page after page of this new adventure with Thurlow in tow.

I only have one bone to pick with Hickam. He wrote several of the most romantic love stories ever written in "The Keeper's Son." I'm afraid he wrote "The Ambassador's Son" for the men: it's not a love story but appears to be purely lust! As a woman, I guess, I was looking for romance and spent most of the book alternating between being upset with Hickam or Penelope. I guess I shouldn't have worried so much. Hickam made everything right in the end!