Suffer in Silence

As shown by Reid's first novel, a thriller notable for its realistic and believable characters, the U.S. Navy Sea Air Land commandos experience some of the most challenging military training anywhere. At its core is Hell Week, in which the tadpole (baby frogman) is pushed past the limits of human endurance. Ensign Mark Grey, a Stanford graduate who volunteered to become a Navy officer and a SEAL, is unpleasantly surprised to learn that his superb athleticism has earned him the antipathy of one of his instructors, who's determined to break him. Grey forms a friendship with an enlisted man, Seaman Murray, whose irreverence has likewise made him a marked man. While Reid, himself a Hell Week survivor, vividly depicts the effects of prolonged sleep deprivation, exhaustion, hypothermia, and lack of food, a subplot to uncover a dirty instructor strains credibility. With all things SEAL being golden in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's demise, readers might wish for more daring-do and less Scooby-do. (Aug.)