Just Reward by Jed Hart
$29.95
PREQUEL
Book 3 in The Jake Hunt Series
Jake Hunt joined the Navy at seventeen and in three years achieved his dream of landing on an aircraft carrier and becoming a naval aviator. The price is a transfer to helicopters and the 135th Assault Helicopter Company in Vietnam. The relentless demands of flying combat assaults dawn to dusk are hard enough, but criminal forces have infiltrated the company.
Jake struggles with the emotional demands of any young man, with the beautiful Tran at Bearcat Base and sweethearts in the USA and Australia. But they must take second place to his commitment to the unit he serves and his duty to fallen comrades.
Denis Cummings –
JUST REWARD by Jed Hart
A Jake Hunt novel
Reviewed with great pleasure by Denis Cummings
(Sailor, skipper, & pilot of hanglider, glider & ultralight aircrafts
Everyone who has ever flown will delight in the in the path taken by the young midshipman once he feels the sting of the flying bug and abandons the sea for the air. From the first flights in Australia, through the trial of the “Dunker”, to “touch and go” on a moving aircraft carrier in the USA, the cost of training must be paid for by going to a controversial war in Vietnam.
And danger is not always from the enemy, the Viet Cong. The racketeers within the war-torn country and the Battalion pose their own deadly threats to survival. Jake needs to attack on both fronts in order to get back home in one piece – with or without the duplicitous bar girl, lover, spy.
A fitting finale (or should it be the start?) to the Jake Hunt series.
Barbara Barrett –
Review for Feather Knight Books
from Barbara Barrett
(Writer for ABC 500 word monthly stories & Published in 5 NSW Seniors Stories Editions)
Jed’s narrative is so convincing that I kept asking myself is that what Jed had been through?
His navy service and experiences as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam and around the world give eye-opening validity to his writing. Returned veterans shared such rejection as Jake Hunt related when he returned from his tour of Vietnam that his response to the protesters spoke volumes to a period in our history from which lessons can be learnt. Thanks to Jed for bringing a significant piece of Australian history to life.
Comparing the Trilogy:
“Without Warning” & “Block 33” have intricate plots, involving a number of themes: e.g kidnapping, religious radicals, war zones, international rivalry, drug dealing, local guerilla groups, company politics…
“Just Reward” flows in its development of Jake Hunt’s life: his training, the Vietnam war, and romances, moving on to another anti-guerilla operation in the Philippines. With emotional support from “Sonia”, the reader, as in the other books, is left with a positive resolution for the future.
I did mention after reading Without Warning that I could imagine it being made into a movie. I questioned the difficulty of filming the helicopter rescue from a Rig in the turbulant North Sea with 60-70-80 knot winds in “Block 33”. But “Just Reward” would be easily screen-scripted in comparison.
The trilogy offers far more diversity in content than any of the Jack Reacher Series– Lee Child’s hero.
David Scott –
Jed Hart delivers masterfully written action and adventure novels, combining his personal experiences with comprehensive research.
“Just Reward” is another page turner in the Jake Hunt series and, like “Without Warning” and “Block 33”, I was engrossed from page 1 through to the last page.
Jakes rigorous training, friends made, loss felt when some of those friends were killed, horrors experienced serving with the 135thAssault Helicopter Company from the Bearcat Base in Vietnam, assisting eliminate corrupt practices, settling scores, declining a second tour so he could build on that thread of decency and mentally managing the gruesome things he’s seen all point to Jake being physically and mentally strong with high morals. The type of person everyone aspires to be.
Jed, thank you for “Just Reward”, the prequel to “Without Warning” and “Block 33”. Your Jake Hunt novels (trilogy) are the best books I’ve ever read.