Specter of Betrayal, The Ghost II (The Long War Home)

Martin Shadows survived Vietnam once. Now something stronger than fear is drawing him back.

After the visions of his Lakota grandfather, Two Shadows, became terrifyingly real during his first tour, Martin might have been expected to leave Vietnam behind.

Instead, he volunteers to return.

It is 1970, and Martin is drawn back to the Central Highlands by the Montagnard people and by the striking connections he sees between their traditions and his own Lakota heritage. His father and grandfather understand what others cannot: for Martin, returning is about more than military duty. He has unfinished business with a people he has come to respect-and with the man the war has made him.

Assigned as an advisor at an ARVN firebase, Martin soon discovers that the Montagnards he hopes to protect are threatened not only by the enemy, but by a corrupt Vietnamese colonel willing to sacrifice them for his own purposes.

When the villagers flee into the highlands, Martin leads a team into the jungle to find them and bring them to safety.

Then an American airstrike is called down on his own LRRP unit.

The attack is no accident.

A rogue CIA operative is working with the colonel, a major North Vietnamese offensive is underway, and Martin no longer knows which side of the war poses the greater danger. Betrayed by men who are supposed to be his allies, he must keep his soldiers alive, protect the people who trusted him, and expose a killer before the conspiracy buries them all.

But Vietnam has taught Martin Shadows that survival carries its own price-and that coming home means little if he abandons the people and principles that define who he has become.

Specter of Betrayal, the sequel to The Ghost, is a gripping Vietnam War thriller of loyalty, cultural identity, brotherhood, betrayal, and the moral choices that follow soldiers long after the battle ends.

Rick DeStefanis is an award-winning author of historical novels set during the Vietnam War, Western historical, and Southern literary fiction. A former 82nd Airborne paratrooper, Rick brings uncommon authenticity, emotional depth, and lived experience to stories shaped by war, memory, loyalty, and the American South. He's the author of fourteen novels and the recipient of four literary awards, but he's just as likely to talk about Alabama football, nature photography, black coffee, straight bourbon, or the rabbits currently trying to claim his Mississippi garden. Roll Tide.