In the prologue to this rousing WWII naval action thriller from Deutermann (The Ice Man), Navy Lt. Robert T. Steele faces a court of inquiry in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, that wants to know where he has been in the almost two years since he went missing from the USS Hornet in 1942. The court members aren't even sure Steele, with his full beard, long hair, and skin dyed nut brown, is who he says he is, but he has one hell of a story to tell. Flashback to the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, where Steele is aboard the battleship Oklahoma, seriously hung over. After surviving the Oklahoma's sinking, he's assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise as the pilot of a Dauntless dive bomber. "She was a powerful bird and each launch felt like she wanted to go out there and kill something." Steele participates in some of the Pacific war's most important battles, including Midway and Guadalcanal, but it's only after he's marooned on the Philippine island of Talawan that his greatest adventure begins. The book's prose is as straightforward as its stalwart hero. Deutermann keeps the reader spellbound throughout. Agent: Nick Ellison, Nick Ellison Agency. (Oct.)