RED FLAGS - Softcover

Jurjevics, Juris

4.07

374 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0547840233 ISBN 13: 9780547840239

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2012

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Army cop Erik Rider prefers to fight his war in the saloons and streets of Saigon. When he is sent to disrupt a Vietcong opium operation deep in the jungle, he could not be less interested. But when Rider lands in Cheo Reo, things get complicated. The American outpost is home to battle-hardened soldiers, intelligence operatives, and profiteers of all stripes. Meanwhile, Vietcong battalions are massing in the hills, and sixty thousand Montagnard tribespeople are advancing with the goal of reclaiming their mountain homeland.

With a bounty on his head, Rider must hunt for the opium smugglers, avoid enemy patrols, and defend the undermanned U.S. base. As he closes in on the smuggling operation, he discovers that someone inside the base has a stake in it, and is willing to kill to protect that stake.

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Review:

A novel of soldiers and spies in the Highlands of Vietnam

Army cop Erik Rider is enjoying his war until he’s sent to disrupt Vietcong opium fields in a remote Highland province.

Rider lands in Cheo Reo, home to hard-pressed soldiers, intelligence operatives, and profiteers of all stripes. The tiny U.S. contingent and their unenthusiastic Vietnamese allies are hopelessly outnumbered by infiltrating enemy infantry. And they’re all surrounded by sixty thousand Montagnard tribespeople who want their mountain homeland back.

The Vietcong are on to Rider’s game and have placed a bounty on his head. As he hunts the opium fields, skirmishes with enemy patrols, and defends the undermanned U.S. base, Rider makes a disturbing discovery: someone close to home has a stake in the opium smuggling ring—and will kill to protect it.

Written by a master, and as authentic as Matterhorn or Dog Soldiers, Red Flags is a riveting new addition to espionage fiction.

A conversation with Juris Jurjevics about Red Flags

Q: What makes Red Flags different from other fictional works about the Vietnam War?
A: Most of them are combat novels. Fictionalized memoirs about fighting the enemy on the ground in the jungles, from helicopters, bombers, river boats: us versus them. Red Flags is about corruption and betrayal and espionage in a seemingly simple place. And Americans caught in the middle of this symbiotic marriage of the warring Vietnamese sides, and about the intrigues and duplicity that fueled the war, literally. "You had to sort through them," says the American main character, "to figure out which side you were on." Which is the difficult task the hero faces in order to pull off his very tricky mission. It is also about the native Montagnard tribes that inhabited the Central Highlands, people despised by the Vietnamese, whose language they didn’t even speak, but were caught in the vise of this messy civil war-revolution.

Q: What kind of research did you do for the book?
A: I got carried away. I did everything. I sought out declassified documents, rare maps, Army incident reports, archives of missionary organizations. I canvassed veterans on the internet, found and corresponded with the missionary I’d known there, located two close friends from the service and met up with them in California for the first time in 40 years, and we phoned two more (who have since met up with the first two). And of course, I read everything I could get my hands on: over a thousand books at this point. The shelves groan.

Q: How much of the book is based on real people and events from your own experience?
A: Too much. Inspired by real events, I think is the expression. Unfortunately.

From the Back Cover:

"To step onto the pages of this intriguing spy tale and haunting war story is to feel the swelter of the rain forest, the menace of enemy patrols, and the maddening duplicity of supposed allies. Red Flags is a richly rewarding hitch in harrowing territory. Enlist immediately."—Dan Fesperman, author of Layover in Dubai

“I love thrillers. Mostly I read history. Red Flags was the best of both. This is not only an espionage thriller but a fascinating and extraordinarily authentic look at the Vietnam War through the eyes of a wry army cop.”—Keith Thomson, New York Times best-selling author of Once a Spy

“In Red Flags, Juris Jurjevics has brilliantly accomplished a feat that is becoming a major characteristic of twenty-first-century literature: the seamless combining of a genre form with the deep resonance of literary art. This is a book that is thrilling to read for both its narrative drive and its insight into the human heart.”—Robert Olen Butler, author of Hell

"Juris Jurjevics has achieved the seemingly irreconcilable by bringing the Vietnam War back, and simultaneously making it new. He has found new dangers in Vietnam—like it needed them. It’s a great thriller, and a great heartbreak, like its subject matter."—Jim Morris, author of War Story

“A gripping tale of adventure and mystery set in the backdrop of the complexity and corruption of the Vietnam War. Jurjevics’s extensive research and first-hand experience in Vietnam result in a story that is both amazing and, at the same time, believable. A great read!"—Doug Bey, M.D., 1st Inf. Div. Vietnam (1969–1970), author of Wizard 6

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