The Blue Deep - Softcover

Heath, Layne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380713985 ISBN 13: 9780380713981

Publisher: Avon Books, 1994

Synopsis

Four American fliers on a mission for their country join a war that is not yet theirs, sharing drinks with the enemy and watching as greed and corruption strip humans of their humanity. Reprint.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Helicopter pilots leave the Korean War to go after black- marketeers in Hanoi during the final days of the French rule in Indochina. Author Heath (CW2, 1990), having served two tours as a chopper pilot in Vietnam, knows what he's talking about. Ostensibly in Hanoi to train French helicopter pilots, Major Marsh McCall actually has secret orders from an old mentor--a colonel who, perhaps, has been in the Orient a little too long. McCall and a small crew of pilots and technicians are to try to uncover the beginning of another black market in the goods of war that America has shipped to their French allies. The major is well motivated, his own son's death in Korea having been caused by black-market weapons. Trouble starts for the fliers the day they arrive. A gang of longshoremen beat them up and steal their jeeps- -but it's not a straightforward crime. One of the pilots, hot on the heels of the thieves, gets mysterious help that leads him to the stolen goods. Settled uncomfortably on a French air base, the men begin to fly escort to motor convoys and then have to watch helplessly as entire trucks are hijacked. When they are off duty, McCall and his men spend considerable time at the Cafe Ho Tay--a neutral spot where Chinese criminals, French colonials, insurgents, and American technical help can get together to eat and gossip. It is there that McCall runs into an old Alsatian chum who surprisingly snubs him and a dying CIA operative who may have gone professionally rotten. As McCall sniffs out more and more corruption, young pilot Cody West takes up with a cranky but dedicated colonial nurse; a renegade spy pulls invisible strings; and the fatalistic French mass for a big battle in the country at a place called Dien Bien Phu. A successful mix of battle action and offstage skulduggery. Grim--but what else? -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

This novel takes us to the beginning of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, when the French were in the midst of betrayal and death at Dien Bien Phu and the only Americans were unofficial "volunteers"; when exotic restaurants and women and ex-patriots were financed by the black market. Marsh McCall and his men have been sent to Vietnam ostensibly to train French helicopter pilots, but almost at once McCall scents an underground traffic in weapons. With the help of the beautiful restaurant owner Su Letei, McCall sets out on his investigation. At the same time, young Code West, crackerjack pilot, falls in love for the first time and risks getting shot by his young lady's father. Soon the war heats up, men begin to die, and the already dark shadows of what would soon become America's most dismal military adventure begin to cover the land. The author, himself a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, has written a book rich in autobiographical detail. The location, the culture, and the people are vivid. The tangles of espionage are cleverly woven into the story. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/92.
- Elsa Pendle ton, Boeing Computer Support Svces., Ridgecrest, Cal.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Avon Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0380713985
• ISBN 13: 9780380713981
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 405