Written by Douglas Kimball
Publisher Description
Colin Campbell is developing the first black pepper plantation in the West Indies. His days are spent clearing jungle, planting and fighting vipers. His nights are spent playing jazz piano at a local bar and enjoying the company of the local ladies. He meets Alan Greene at a jazz festival in Limon. Alan, a Canadian botanist, is marooned in Costa Rica, abandoned when his employer curtailed his mission. (He refused to leave his outpost so he could complete research on the native herbal traditions.) Alan agrees to help Colin, known locally as El Colonel, with his pepper propagation problems in exchange for a small salary, room, board, and help getting to the Canadian Embassy to clear up his visa issues, gain access to funds, and exit Costa Rica.
But Alan does not leave Costa Rica. He and Colin develop an abiding friendship while navigating life as ex-pats in Central America. Colin, a drug interdiction specialist (experience gained while stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Medellin) is recalled into service just as Alan faces deportation because of an altercation with an El Capo strongman over a woman. Captain Campbell was selected by the Commanding General in Afghanistan. Campbell was selected to lead the U.S. effort to take on the resurgent opium problem. To address Alan’s immediate problem in Costa Rica, Colin convinces the service to take Alan along to Afghanistan as well, as a PhD botanist.
However, Alan’s expertise and his Canadian ties present him as a candidate for a different mission. The U.S. State Department wants to surreptitiously place him within the Karsai administration to oversee the massive fiscal fiasco called the Alternative Crop Program. When Alan accepts this mission, both Captain Campbell and Dr. Greene find themselves on quite different paths, and each leads to war weary Afghanistan.
Though the two friends will each reside within the inner “Ring of Steel” within Kabul’s Green Zone, their missions place them on quite different trajectories.
They begin a secret collaboration. Alan, through his local connections, develops intelligence sources that prove predictive in determining the areas of accumulation by the Thai and Chinese opium cartels. He shares this information with Colin and this intelligence, coupled with the military’s already extensive opium data, leads to unprecedented success against the cartels. Colin’s reputation as a drug warrior grows, this time on the opposite side of the globe. And this time he owes much of his success to his secret local intelligence source, his particular friend, Dr. Alan Greene.
As Colin and the U.S. military enjoy their successive anti-opium victories, the cartels and the Taliban ally and rally against them. This unexpected alliance further ratchets up the chaos and violence in war torn Kabul. This comes as political support for the surge strategy erodes back in Washington. Alan’s intelligence sources feel the intense pressure, flee, and seek asylum elsewhere. As Colin’s intelligence flow is about to end, he launches a major interdiction operation. Believing that Alan’s mission may be compromised, the U.S. State Department arranges for his quick removal from Kabul. Colin, already depleted after suffering for months from an ill-defined local ailment called the Kabul crud, is unaware that Alan is safe and fears for his friend. Just as the new Secretary of Defense arrives at Camp Eggers in Kabul to announce the new U.S. exit strategy, as he exits the U.S.M.C. Osprey and waves from the top of the airstairs, Major Campbell, at attention in the officer greeting line below, collapses on the tarmac.
The book ends as the two friends reconnect in the military hospital in Landstul, Germany. Colin is recovering from a virulent form of Kabul-bred Typhoid. Alan arrives to check on his friend. Assured that Colin will fully recover, the two friends plan their return to el Rancho de Piper Nigrum in Costa Rica.
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Supp0rt a struggling American writer and buy this b00k – please. Gift it t0 y0ur ign0rant nephew and maybe, just maybe he’ll pull his head 0ut after reading this st0ry which is l00sely based up0n a season of my life.
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Simon, I have a question for you. One of my young cousins just landed a job where he can work remotely from anywhere in the world. He is entertaining the idea of renting an apartment in Belize for a few months, and working from there. Is this a good idea? I fear for him. He has lived in Mass, Florida, and Pennsylvania, but he has never been outside the U.S., at least not for very long, and I don’t think at all.
I will buy your book for him.
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Bad idea. See McAfee: Suicide.
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Thank you. His parents are so clueless. I was explaining to his college educated father that most places in South America are dangerous. He seemed surprised. I will definitely be trying to inform this kid!
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It’s a great read: travel, action, horticulture, seasoned with some romance and jazz musical moments! (I’m rereading it for the umpteenth time: It’s my ‘happy place’ book.)
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Tell him t0 c0me t0 Thailand. I’ll be his b0dyguard.
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LOL 🙂 He is an innocent little boy. You would only corrupt him 🙂
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It’s merely a lifestyle choice.
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I see what you did there 🙂 Well done 🙂
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“You would only corrupt him 🙂 ”
If Courage, Honor, and Commitment are corrupting influences, JaC, I’d agree, but… 🙂
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I know, Nanda, I was joking 🙂
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I know you were….
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🙂
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He would be extremely displeased to hear me describing him that way. I have to tread carefully. He was in Florida during a really bad hurricane. He had just moved there, from up North. No experience with hurricanes, no clue. His mother asked him what his plan was, and he said, “My plan is I am not afraid.” I am afraid that any attempt to discourage him from doing this will only egg him on more.
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Travel is the best educati0n if 0ne survives.
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!!!!!!!!! OMG !!!!!!!! It’s totally true. OMG.
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I’m glad to be able to travel vicariously here, actually.
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Quit0, Ecuad0r would certainly be better but I have n0t been there f0r many years.
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They tell me David, Panama is nice. I have never been there.
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