Blades upon Books - Traditionals

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I've read most of the novels that Tana French has written. They're "psychological mysteries", usually involving one or more murders. The author is Irish, and all her novels I've read have been set in somewhere in Ireland. One thing that frustrates me about her books is there often is not as much "resolution" at the end of the story as I'd like to see, but I suppose that's part of the package with mysteries based on weird psychology. The book I recently read is the first of two featuring a former Chicago detective who retired to a rural area of Ireland. He gets involved in trying to find out what happened to the older brother of a kid who shows up in his yard one day. I'd recommend it.
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Many years ago, I thought I read most of the novels that Nelson DeMille had written. I thought they were enjoyable, even if some of them were quite depressing. I'd describe most of his books as "political thrillers", often involving spies and/or the military. Almost a month ago, when we went on vacation in Cedarville, MI, we arrived in town too late to get any books from the library that Saturday, and the library wouldn't be open again until Tuesday. But we found out that the place we were staying has a "laundry/library" at the end of one of their cottages, with a huge number of books, both paperback and hard cover, on shelves taking up the entire wall across from the washer and dryer. I found the book by DeMille pictured below, and, as far as I can recall, I've never read it. It was an interesting military murder mystery with lots of plot twists.
(It caused me to check another DeMille book out of the Cedarville library and, when I saw I wouldn't be able to finish it while we were "Up North", I put it on hold in my "home" library branch. I'm currently reading that one and will post it here after I finish it in a couple of days.)
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I started this book while we were on vacation at the end of August, and I finished it about a week after Labor Day. Coincidentally, I read that the author died at age 81 on September 17. The book is fiction about a My Lai type massacre in which a platoon of American soldiers kill over 100 people, including Vietnamese patients and international staff, at a hospital just outside Hue during the battle for Hue after the Tet Offensive at the end of January 1968. The book is actually set near New York City 17 years later when the former Army lieutenant commanding the platoon in question is called back into the Army from a successful corporate career so he can be tried for murder in a court martial after an investigative journalist writes a book that contains a description of the hospital massacre based on interviews with a couple of former members of the platoon. There are numerous flashbacks throughout the book that go back to Vietnam and eventually reveal a sequence of events quite different than those that appear in the book that exposed the atrocities. Lots of interesting court-martial room drama, and lots of discussion related to honor, duty, loyalty, truth vs. perception, the effect of Vietnam on American society, and other related issues.

The novel's protagonist, who had been the platoon leader in Vietnam, was not an especially sympathetic figure in my opinion. I thought his civilian lawyer, who had also led a platoon when he was a lieutenant serving in Vietnam, was much more likable. (Demille, the author, was also an Army lieutenant who led a platoon in Vietnam. I wonder if any of the "Vietnam action" in the novel was somewhat autobiographical?) I've never read, or watched the movie version of, The Caine Mutiny, but several reviewers of Word of Honor claim that this book does a good job of addressing some of the same issues. I thought it was a very engaging and thought-provoking novel, and it seemed consistent with many of the other things I've read about the Vietnam War over the past few years. I'm especially interested in information about Hue because a guy I grew up with (3 years ahead of me in school) was killed during the initial attack on Hue, less than 2 weeks before his 20th birthday. He apparently died heroically and received numerous posthumous medals and honors, but still such a sad story.

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5K Qs said:
Many years ago, I thought I read most of the novels that Nelson DeMille had written. I thought they were enjoyable, even if some of them were quite depressing. I'd describe most of his books as "political thrillers", often involving spies and/or the military. Almost a month ago, when we went on vacation in Cedarville, MI, we arrived in town too late to get any books from the library that Saturday, and the library wouldn't be open again until Tuesday. But we found out that the place we were staying has a "laundry/library" at the end of one of their cottages, with a huge number of books, both paperback and hard cover, on shelves taking up the entire wall across from the washer and dryer. I found the book by DeMille pictured below, and, as far as I can recall, I've never read it. It was an interesting military murder mystery with lots of plot twists.
(It caused me to check another DeMille book out of the Cedarville library and, when I saw I wouldn't be able to finish it while we were "Up North", I put it on hold in my "home" library branch. I'm currently reading that one and will post it here after I finish it in a couple of days.)
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I read this one a long time ago. Good book, but then all of DeMille's I've read have been pretty good. The movie based on the book is worth watching. Travolta plays the CID investigator and gives a good performance.
 
mbkr said:
I read this one a long time ago. Good book, but then all of DeMille's I've read have been pretty good. The movie based on the book is worth watching. Travolta plays the CID investigator and gives a good performance.
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Thanks for the movie recommendation, Mike. I didn't realize that there was a film based on the book.

My wife recently picked up DeMille's Up Country from a Little Free Library. I read that book a long time ago, and the main character, Paul Brenner, is the same Army investigator featured in The General's Daughter. I remember that the book is set in Vietnam, and the investigator is called out of retirement to look into a murder that occurred 30 years earlier during the Vietnam War. But I can't recall much else about the book. I hope to read it later this month.

5K Qs said:
I've read most of the novels that Tana French has written. They're "psychological mysteries", usually involving one or more murders. The author is Irish, and all her novels I've read have been set in somewhere in Ireland. One thing that frustrates me about her books is there often is not as much "resolution" at the end of the story as I'd like to see, but I suppose that's part of the package with mysteries based on weird psychology. The book I recently read is the first of two featuring a former Chicago detective who retired to a rural area of Ireland. He gets involved in trying to find out what happened to the older brother of a kid who shows up in his yard one day. I'd recommend it.
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I recently read French's The Hunter, a sequel to The Searcher. I thought it was a very good novel, but I think the book is more meaningful if The Searcher is read first.
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(I'll probably start re-reading some of French's earlier novels about the Dublin Murder Squad, a group of Irish homicide investigators.)

- GT
 
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