“WOW! This is one terrific book—action-packed first chapter to draw you in, a tempo that never lets up, very familiar terrain (four extra drill points for visiting so many training centers and fleet headquarters), an homage or two to some Marines we’ve all met, and a story that’s good to the very last twist! I strongly urge all you Marines, ex-Marines, and especially Reservists to read it, because you no doubt will LOVE Andy Harp’s A Northern Thunder, a real fine page-turner you won’t want to put down!”  

—Kevin Doyle, Past President of the Marine Corps Reserve Officers Association

"I knew I was in trouble after the first chapter. The dishes didn't get washed, grass didn't get cut, laundry piled up, and the house didn't get cleaned. Basically, the world stopped until I finished the book. Northern Thunder is really that good a book! In fact, it’s a wow! The author has taken his vast Marine Reserve experience and career and used them to create a scenario demonstrating the essence of potential danger that exists in our world today.  His characters are believable; and his story line is plausible.. Northern Thunder is an incredible thriller." 

—Patricia Zaudtke, Col/USMCR (ret), who served at the Pentagon. She’s now a high school teacher in Gainesville, GA.

 “Will Parker, our hero here, represents a renaissance of everything good and able. He conquers all through his (dare we say it?) virtue, and his unerring insights into the hearts and minds of others. Will Parker’s creator, author Andy Harp, has masterfully embedded in his story more nuggets of suspense than there are chocolate chips in an oversized helping of chocolate chip cookies. Readers, get ready for a thrilling, ever-accelerating, super-suspenseful race for justice and survival.”

—Jack Brinkley, former Member of Congress (GA, Third District), 1967-1983, and former member, the House Armed Services Committee and the House Veterans' Affairs Committee

“A Northern Thunder is an intelligent, insightful, and compelling thriller that explores enduring military, policy, technological, and human themes.”

—Gerald Felix Warburg, author, The Mandarin Club, and Prominent Washington, DC Lobbyist

“Readers of fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping military thrillers that keep the audience's attention throughout will thoroughly enjoy A Northern Thunder. Each main character is well-developed and understandable, even the villains (who consider themselves the good guy patriots and our side the villains). Surprisingly, China is portrayed as a gentle giant trying to keep its wayward child, North Korea, under control. Author Andy Harp knows how to create a good story germane to the times. Ten Out of Ten Stars!”

—Harriet Klausner, Midwest Book Review

“Fast-paced and riveting … I blew right through it.  Based on my two tours in Joint Special Operations, I can attest to the book’s superb technical accuracy, and given the excellent plot, I imagine it will grab and hold the attention of practically every active or former Marine.”

—Ken Icenhour, Colonel USMCR ( Ret.)

“In Harp’s debut, Will Parker, a smalltown Georgia lawyer and Desert Storm Marine vet, is recruited for a dangerous mission: to identify and photograph a former classmate who has been aiding North Korea’s quest for missiles of mass destruction while North Korea protects him with three look-alikes, and also has an assassin out to kill other scientists so that North Korea can corner the market. The secondary characters aren’t nearly as convincing as Harp’s descriptions of satellite technology, submersible suits, and the like. But Parker has resilience, foresight, and fortitude to spare, and North Korea’s repressive regime and rugged terrain make for deadly opponents.”

—Publishers Weekly

“The American military today cannot initiate action, project force, or sustain operations without a reliable reserve component. In Northern Thunder, Andy Harp brings his decades of military experience to bear in assigning a suicide mission to a well-trained—and expendable—Marine reserve officer and his elite team. Political intrigue, realistic operational developments, and well-developed characters highlight Col. Harp’s work.  Col Harp is a master story teller, and this is not only a story worth telling, but great and mandatory reading for anyone interested in how America’s joint, combined force operates. And the Korean threat scenario in which he crafts his story has been ignored by Harp’s peers for too long, thus making Northern Thunder at once troubling, frightening, and sobering.” 

—Lawrence E. Carr III, a Washington, DC attorney; formerly a communications officer in the U.S. Marine Corps; and active as a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve

"Andy Harp is indeed a talented writer in his own right."

—Rebecca Johns, Winner of the Michener-Copernicus Award for her novel Icebergs (Bloomsbury USA)

“The pace of this bold thriller is heart-pounding, indeed . . . Harp’s own experience as both a Marine and a prosecutor lend the story utter believability. Perhaps not quite as complex as Clancy novels, Northern Thunder certainly belongs in the hands of all military-thriller fans.”

—Booklist

Title Information

10 Digit ISBN: 1-890862-53-5 (cloth)

13 Digit ISBN:  978- 1-890862-53-4 (cloth)

TITLE: A Northern Thunder: Will Parker’s North Korean Mission

AUTHOR: Andy Harp

PUBLISHER: Bancroft Press

PUBLISHER PHONE NUMBER: 410-358-0658

PUBLISHER WEBSITE: www.bancroftpress.com

PUBLISHER E-MAIL ADDRESS: bruceb@bancroftpress.com

PUBLICATION DATE: October 2007

CLOTH PRICE: $25.00

NUMBER OF PAGES: 286

SUBJECTS/TOPICS OF BOOK: Fiction/Thriller/Military/North Korea/Satellites