French Resistance leader Patrique Servais might have died during torturous imprisonment if his brother, Major Pierre Servais, and Colonel Jake Burnes hadn’t rescued him in Morocco. Patrique has important intelligence to save the French government from a treasonous post-war scheme, but assassins are determined to kill him, Pierre, and Jake in the desert in Sahara Crosswind, a novel by author T. Davis Bunn.

It took me a while to settle into the rhythm of this story. Much of the opening is rather solitary (with Jake) and dialogue-less, and the first third or so of the book is mostly about Jake adapting to “the desert way.” Traveling through the desert; coming to appreciate a tribal people as he learns desert living; discovering and appreciating the beauty of the desert; experiencing God and the wonder of what can’t be put into words during his desert time.

The story quietly lays down rich layers that almost feel removed from the overall mission and latent danger that’s driving it all. So when the danger leaps back into the forefront, it hits you.

Here in the middle of the Rendezvous with Destiny series, this book is like an interlude or bridge, continuing and tying up one crucial adventure and making way for the next to begin. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s on the other side of this bridge. ( )

Stalked by bands of assassins, they risk the ravages of the desert to save a nation from the hand of tyranny.

In Morocco, Jake Burnes and Pierre Servais have rescued Pierre's twin brother from his kidnappers, but their reunion is overshadowed by mortal danger. Patrique Servais, a leader in the French Resistance, weak from months of imprisonment and torture, had stumbled upon Nazi collaboration and treason at the highest levels of French government, and rewards for his assassination have mercenaries stalking their trail.

As the rolling tide of danger closes in, the vast reaches of the Sahara threaten to swallow them up. Will the clifftops to the mediterranean offer a sanctuary from the storm? ( )