Persian Horse

In the final months of a war in the Persian Gulf, Iranian commandos seize the frigate USS Bulkeley. Their mission: to turn her into a ``Persian horse,'' a floating bomb targeted against the flagship of U.S. forces in the Gulf. With most of the Bulkeley' s crew imprisoned in their berthing compartments, lieutenant commander John Stewart and a handful of enlisted men fight with wits, fists and shotguns to recover their ship. First-novelist Iverson, a retired naval officer with Gulf experience, owes at least as much to C. S. Forester as to Tom Clancy; gadgets here are featured against the backdrop of an exciting action-adventure story pitting men against one another in a race against time. Despite the unlikely presence on the Bulkeley of a woman journalist who is Stewart's former lover, this military thriller develops convincingly, and generally sympathetic characterization of the Iranians enhances the narrative credibility. (May)