Heart of War - Softcover

Truscott, Lucian K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451187709 ISBN 13: 9780451187703

Publisher: Signet, 1998

Synopsis

Investigating the brutal murder of Lieutenant Sheila Worthy at a military base in Fort Benning, Georgia, Major Kara Guidry stumbles upon a secret with the power to shake the entire military establishment, as well as her own loyalties. Reprint.

About this title

Review

Nobody tells a story about the Army better than Lucian K. Truscott IV, who comes from a military family and knows how to write up a storm. His latest--after Dress Gray, available in paperback--is an incredibly timely and totally engrossing story about a promising female officer involved in an adulterous affair. Her accused murderer is defended by a marvelously complex character, Major Kate Guidry, who understands both sides of the dilemma: how a closed world like the Army needs to impose its own controls, and how the physical demands of human beings can't be forced out of shape just because they wear uniforms.

From Kirkus Reviews

Sex, sexism, and murder rear their ugly heads at an Army base in Georgia, with convulsive consequences for the brass and troops alike: another engrossing, cautionary tale from Truscott (Rules of the Road, 1989, etc.), now making a welcome return to the military milieu he knows best. Major Kara Guidry, a staff attorney in the Judge Advocate General's Office, is assigned to investigate the homicide of a young female lieutenant at Fort Benning. Apprised that the victim may have been romantically involved with a senior officer, she fixes on William Beckwith as her prime suspect. A vaultingly ambitious but personally reckless general who's in line to become the next Chief of Staff, he fits the frame nicely. Eager for an end to the messy case, Beckwith pressures Kara (vulnerable because, against regulations, she's been conducting an affair with a staff sergeant) to finger a convenient fall guy who died in a training mishap. Guided by the martial premise that the heart of battle is to engage the enemy or retire from the field, the feisty JAG lawyer (a former helicopter pilot whose gender denied her a squadron command) presses on, eventually unearthing evidence that links the careerist Beckwith to an earlier killing. Before she can pounce, though, another young woman's body is found and Captain Randy Taylor, Beckwith's aide, is indicted for the crime. The likable Taylor has an airtight alibi, which he refuses to use because it would incriminate his gay lover, a Pentagon brigadier. Having switched sides to defend him, Kara manages to dig out the truth in a series of vivid courtroom confrontations that reveal the culprit and leave her sadder but wiser. A well-handled shocker that raises intriguing questions as to how one branch of the armed forces can send soldiers of varied sexual orientations so many conflicting messages. (Film rights to Jaffe Entertainment; Literary Guild selection) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Signet
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451187709
• ISBN 13: 9780451187703
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 431