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The gripping story of a Vietnam vet whose secret past threatens his family, career, and honor, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Plum Island .

He is a good man, a brilliant corporate executive, an honest, handsome family man admired by men and desired by women. But sixteen years ago Ben Tyson was a lieutenant in Vietnam.

There, in 1968, the men under his command committed a murderous atrocity--and together swore never to tell the world what they had done. Not the press, army justice, and the events he tried to forget have caught up with Ben Tyson. His family, his career, and his personal sense of honor hang in the balance. And only one woman can reveal the truth of his past--and set him free.

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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.

Publishers 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

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]

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Nelson DeMille was born in New York City on August 23, 1943. He attended Hofstra University for three years, then joined the Army and went to Officer Candidate School. He was commissioned a First Lieutenant and served in Vietnam as an infantry platoon leader with the First Calvary Division. He received the Air Medal, Bronze Star, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry while in the service. He eventually returned to Hofstra University and received a degree in political science and history.

His first writings were NYPD detective novels, but his first major novel, By the Rivers of Babylon, was published in 1978. His other works include Cathedral, The Talbot Odyssey, Word of Honor, The Gold Coast, The General's Daughter, Spencerville, Plum Island, The Lion's Game, Up Country, Night Fall, Wild Fire, and The Quest. His New York Times bestsellers include Radient Angel and The Cuban Affair.

(Bowker Author Biography)