Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Paul Brenner, a retired army CID detective, is a bit bored in retirement, not adjusting to his sudden retirment and a bit lost. He's offered a sketchy mission in Vietnam, one that he knows is far more involved than he's been told, that involves what is now believed to be a murder during the Tet Offensive. In fact he knows he's being sent into it without backup or anything close to adequate information. He takes the assignment anyway.

Thus Paul finds himself arriving back in Vietnam, flying into Saigon, since the war ended called Ho Chi Minh City, a return 30 years after he first experienced it as an infantryman. That first visit was in 1968, one of the deadliest years of the war. He meets with Susan Weber, an American expat working for an American-Asian financial investment company, who is doing 'a favor' for the US by acting as Paul's liaison and guide until Paul needs to head north on his mission, ultimately ending up in Hanoi. Nothing that thereafter transpires from this point forward eases his concerns about the mission. He proceeds anyway.

Susan accompanies him, and as the details of the mission are revealed slowly, his instincts that he's been fed a bunch of lies, and no one is who they claim to be, are confirmed, and that includes Susan. On top of that, on landing, he was pulled from immigration to be questioned by man claiming to be an Immigration Officer named Mang - who clearly is more than that and has serious suspicions that Paul is a spy and up to no good. Mang lets him go though it is very clear he will be keeping an eye on Paul. Danger and deception d0gs Paul and Susan every step as they follow orders and move through Vietnam from the south to the north where Paul's mission will actually occur ending in quite a final confrontation and escape.

It's a good thriller plot, political rather than action and violence (though there is some but more so with Paul's memories about the war), though at 850+ pages, the pace frequently moves slowly. But that thriller espionage plot was for me secondary. What has given this a 5 star rating is both the journey through the length of Vietnam just after it has reopened to the west and Paul's (and the author's) very personal journey revisiting and even making peace with the two turns of duty he served during the most intense and violent periods of the war.

In a way this was also a personal journey for me. The Vietnam War colored my youth, ending only as I started college. There's a moment in the book where Paul talks about his reasons for signing up for a 2nd tour, one of which to give his younger brother, about to be drafted, the chance not to be sent to Vietnam as siblings serving were unofficially not both sent at same time. It worked and his younger brother ended up in Germany. My elder brother avoided Vietnam through another unofficial channel and too ended up serving his tour in Germany. Antiwar protests and the final withdrawal were the background of my teens. And, in the late 1990s, during the very period this story is set in, I had a client producing the first film made in Vietnam after the was -- called Three Seasons it's a beautiful film of great historical importance - look it up. Alas it doesn't seem to be available to stream. I was on the phone with my client the entire time they were filming there, getting to hear many of the same sites and experiences that the MC does at that time.

There's a very personal feeling to the journey the MC personally goes through, revisiting Vietnam, assessing it then but also putting into perspective his own terrible memories. In his acknowledgment, DeMille confirms his own service and a visit he made in 1997 with 2 friends who also served, a visit that very clearly is the background for the story. This is as much historical fiction as thriller - 2 time periods - 1968 through the fall and after it first opened again to the West. I cannot recommend it enough.