A Timely Thriller: - Reviewed at "Middle East Vacation Book Review"

"I have never thought of myself as a thriller fan, but the timely Middle East setting of Behind the Green Water and its fast pace captured my interest from the beginning. The protagonist Nash Devon, an American military officer, is complex, believable, and unlike many inflexible and unfeeling male characters, has heart. The back story comes forth gradually, supplying his motivation and creating his sympathetic personality. The novel satisfies our curiosity in particular about Iraq and reveals why this nation is potentially so dangerous. Yet we also meet some admirable Iraqi people and kind, if often discouraged, United Nations refugee workers. The author clearly has experience with the culture, towns, and countryside of Iraq, as well as Syria and Saudi Arabia, and convincingly describes the military environment and hardware. The intrigue Devon confronts rings true, as well. Surprisingly, the novel develops an undercurrent of spirituality that relates to the title. Devon is on a cruelly difficult mission. Few will be able to set the book aside without knowing if he is successful, and few will be able to stop reading until they know whether Devon and the woman and boy he befriends can all escape their enemies."

From Louise Crawford, award-wining author:

"J. M. Taylor’s political thriller shows clear knowledge of Iraq and its neighbors, the danger and fear of living under constant threat of death, and what that does to a person, or a culture – a culture shown in vivid Technicolor through the eyes of the main character, U.S. soldier Nash Devon. Devon, sent into UN territory to discover and take out a nuclear missile site – if it’s there – pretends to be a UN agricultural specialist as he searches throughout the war-torn region.

Accompanied by a Frenchwoman there to help the villagers, and an Arabic woman forced to play spy to save herself and her son from Hussein, Devon finds his emotions raw as he cares for the boy and realizes he is drawn to the Frenchwoman – despite her sarcasm and less than generous attitude toward him. From day one, when Devon is saved from a firing squad, to the end, he faces life and death drama, rescuing his co-workers, sometimes winning, sometimes losing and sometimes losing track of his goal. There is a strong undercurrent of religious beliefs, from Native American to Muslim to Christian in an interesting mix of characters who rise above the chaos surrounding them to a hopeful future. Taylor does a masterful job of dragging the reader into a world of extremes, through grassy fields laced with mines where a wandering goat or child is readily blown apart, into the rubble-strewn streets of Baghdad, and into villages where friend and foe are indistinguishable until guns are waving and bullets are blasting.

From a reader who purchased Behind the Green Water at the 2003 Florida Suncoast Writers Conference:

"Behind the Green Water has interesting and well-developed characters, a definite sense of place and enough action to fill several books. Even with this breakneck pace, Nash is able to develop a credible love interest. The writing is superb. Unlike many books in the action adventure/suspense genre, you do not forsake the writer's mission to be a teacher and philosopher (e.g.; the passage that begins "The moon fought for recognition, a pale sliver that climbs..."