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Sometimes, Nelson DeMille seems to be writing on auto-pilot. The sentence " He/she/they didn't reply," for example, is one of DeMille's narrative tics. There are other irritating DeMille-isms in this (very long) book: His predilection for young, attractive female heroines who hook up with older men, for example. Smartass dialogue that wears thin. The lack of emotion, in favor of action. Short, action-verb sentences, and a lack of introspection.

But. This was a very good book, one that kept me turning pages, and thinking about the absolute horror of serving in combat, especially in VietNam, the meaningless jungle war that waited for many of my high school classmates, back in the 1960s. The plot was interesting, and kept cooking along, as bits of information were released or confirmed. And (apparently in contrast to other readers) I found the ending fascinating--a genuine quandary, terrible and difficult moral issues: Is there a limit on criminal offenses committed during a stupid and immoral war? If that war was 30 years ago? What should we expect from a country where we fought, killing off a generation of young men and devastating the country's economy for another generation? How would we expect to be treated there, in a place with residual bitterness and anger?

I think it's one of DeMille's better novels, because you can feel his own experience bubbling up in the story. Four stars.