THE SUBSTITUTE

2023, Green Altar Books, 388 pages, e-book, paperback

Dr. Thomas “Tom” Ironsides is a fearsome man for a fearsome challenge. Widely regarded as one of the most effective and most dangerous paramilitary officers in modern clandestine history, he is a monster in his own right—a deadly warrior, possessed of keen intelligence, determined to defend civilization. Retired from the USMC and the CIA, he finds a new mission on the battlefield of public education. There he finds eerie connections to the wars, terror, and plots he thought he had finally left behind. Can one man turn the impossible tide?

Review by Tom Moore, RIP, author of A FATAL MERCY: It Takes Courage…

Perrin Lovett is a natural story-teller, with a superb command of language and a tone, sardonic at times, that is appropriate to his subject. And he has created a splendid protagonist, Dr. Tom Ironsides, the substitute of the title. Dr. Ironsides is also Colonel Ironsides, retired from the Marine Corps and from subsequent “black ops” with the CIA. He is an academic, trained in the Classics, and a warrior, trained to function in a world where competence equals survival.

At first I was concerned how Lovett would get such an engaging character from the battlefield against terrorism to the battlefield against ignorance. But he does it quite well, quite credibly.

Review by Dr. Clyde Wilson, author of Looking for Mr. Jefferson: A Southern James Bond Goes to School

The schools barely teach reading, writing and ‘rithmetic to some of the students. As for passing on Western Civilisation, which has been the successful goal of education for centuries, the intellectual and moral mediocrities who are in charge do not even know what you are talking about.

Ironsides entered the schools in an open-minded investigative attitude and in hope of contributing some improvement. He ends his year with the certainty that there is no hope of reform in the vast decaying educational empire. The preservers of civilisation must leave behind the mass public “education” and begin innovative work elsewhere.