Review by Booklist Review
Ben Tyson faces trial for murder by a military court following the publication of a book that implicates him in a vicious attack on Vietnamese civilians. [BKL O 1 85]
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
If fiction can assuage the lingering moral pain of the Vietnam War, it's through the kind of driving honesty coupled with knowledgeability that DeMille (By the Rivers of Babylon) employs here, in a story which, as riveting as The Caine Mutiny but with wider implications, probes the conflicting concepts of honor, duty and loyalty as they relate to an event of the My Lai varietyand assesses blame. Prompted by a just-published book that holds ex-lieutenant Ben Tyson accountable for a hushed-up massacre committed by his platoon in a Hue hospital 18 years before, the army recalls Tyson to stand trial for murder. Tyson, confronted by an army authority anxious to save its own face, an embarrassed federal government (which has its own ``deal'' to propose) and a threatened marriage, and entangled, furthermore, in his own past lives and present sense of guilt, must call on all his lawyer's cleverness and his own inner toughness to fight his case. The flashbacks to Hue, the pre-trial investigation (involving an attractive female major), the court-martial proceedings, the emotions of the principal characters and the soul-sickness wrought by war (which is the story's effective subtext)all are depicted with marvelous vividness. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo. Foreign rights: Jack Ellison. November 11 (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Ben Tyson's world falls apart when a new book accuses him of covering up a massacre of civilians during his service in Vietnam 15 years earlier. Pulled back into the military to face court martial, he confronts questions of duty and truth and their impact on his life and family. There may well be a pretty good ten-hour book buried in this 28-hour mess. Subplots are developed, then abandoned, like Ben's wife's own notoriety for a widely known nude picture, or his relationship with an attractive officer, who investigates him. Verbose pomposity has long been DeMille's weakness as a writer, which he usually punctures with his sharp wit. Not here though. He generally conjures up a more enticing hook and a more engaging protagonist than Ben Tyson as well. Long stretches of legal document boilerplate don't help. Narrator Scott Brick gets a quiver in his voice during Ben's many seething speeches, but his version of one character's "Midwestern" accent sounds distinctly Virginian. Purchase only for patrons who demand a complete DeMille collection.-John Hiett, Iowa City P.L.(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
After three middling suspense behemoths, DeMille has at last hit a home run with a straightforward dramatic novel focusing on an ex-Army officer being tried for a war crime in Vietnam: his platoon's massacre of doctors, nurses and patients in a French Red Cross hospital staffed by Vietnamese Catholic nuns and some Western personnel--a hospital plainly marked Hospital (in Vietnamese), flying a Viet Cong flag (a sign of surrender in that surreal war), a Red Cross flag and supposedly with a white sheet hung from its windows. Former lieutenant Ben Tyson, 41, a family man with a respected wife and teen-age son and now a high echelon executive with a Japanese-owned aviation electronics company in Manhattan, finds himself singled out as a Lt. Calley-styled monster in the new bestseller Hue: City of Death by Andrew Picard, a former Army public-information officer in Hue (pronounced Way). But Tyson's atrocity was 18 years ago--does the Army still have jurisdiction over this crime? Indeed it does, but that is only part of the marvelous legal machinery being put to the test for the first time in DeMille's inventive plot. While Ben and his family's private lives are exposed by the media, we spend nearly 200 pages of this 520-page blockbuster wondering if Ben will be recalled to active duty for a court-martial and whether the Army even has a case to try. Here is a steamily hot potato for the White House, the Army Judge Advocate General, and the Secretary of the Army--all of whom once mucked up the My Lai war crime trial--and the American people want answers. Meanwhile, various veterans groups start up a defense fund for Ben. Wisely, to sustain suspense, DeMille does not make Ben holier-than-thou--he's an evasive guy, guarding his rear from everyone, including his wife and lawyers. As we discover, the surviving members of his platoon have sworn to a pact of secrecy about what really happened in that hospital, and Ben's word of honor is at the heart of the plot. DeMille balances it all, with strong characterizations and a new maturity of storytelling powers. It's not just his mastery of spellbinding legal minutiae that keeps the voltage at a steady high current. One is completely gripped by the question of what will happen to this haunted, guilt-resistant, essentially honorable man as his life and loved ones are massacred. With Word of Honor (whose court-martial drama bears favorable comparison with Herman Wouk's in The Caine Mutiny), DeMille enters a new class as a big-money novelist engaged with deep-running themes. Strong ad push, likely whopping sales. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
