It’s 1968 and Xavier Brede, nicknamed “Ex,” has excelled at military training—finding himself catapulted into the Vietnam War. Rather than being deployed on the frontline, Brede volunteers to go to the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea—where a secret plan is being hatched to launch nuclear weapons at the Ho Chi Min Trail in Vietnam. Weapons fired from the ground rather than from the air.

This alternate history novel from former soldier Kip Cassino is gritty and full of realistic drama. Though told from multiple perspectives, the heart of the novel is Brede’s story. Cassino has created a well-rounded character with opinions and feelings, rather than just a simplistic action hero, and he’s also crafted a fine supporting cast. Most notably Jackie Lake, Ex’s love interest, and a nurse who is described as being as “tough as a nickel steak.”

OPERATION TOLLBOOTH is a comparatively short novel, running to a little over 200 pages, which works in its favor. Though Cassino is keen to ensure that his “what if” story is based on factual possibility (there is an extensive glossary at the end of the book and appendices detailing US military artillery), he manages to avoid getting too bogged down by detail. That said, there is close attention paid to the day-to-day life of a soldier that could only have come from personal experience of military life. It’s a fine balance between verisimilitude and the requirements of a page-turning thriller. For the most part, Cassino avoids too much jargon and keeps the story moving—helped by a fluid, often poetic turn of phrase. When he writes of conflict, he is able to easily evoke the shock and awful strangeness of war—the “parody of daylight” of flares dropped before a nighttime raid, or this description of a nuclear explosion: “the eerie clouds that rose, spread and climbed away to the northeast—each glowing, roiling, and flashing as it moved. The Moon rose as a decaying crescent that night. Hellish clouds scudded above it as they rose, turning the evening sky otherworldly.”

At a time when military brinkmanship seems to once more be playing its part in global politics, this novel is a reminder of how the state of the world so often hangs on decisions made in a moment of crisis.

Kip Cassino’s OPERATION TOLLBOOTH is a thought-provoking, well-researched, and skillfully executed alternative history.

~Kent Lane for IndieReader