The Price of Honor

Captain Sandy Caine has always been haunted by the mystery of his father's cowardice in Vietnam, and together with reporter Abigail Mancini, he begins investigating circumstances that some people would like to be kept secret. 85,000 first printing.

Retired army colonel and reporter Hackworth's first novel, a fine-tuned military thriller, follows on the heels of his two acclaimed nonfiction critiques of the U.S. military, About Face and Hazardous Duty. While conducting a mission in Somalia, Special Forces Captain Sandy Caine (an eighth generation warrior) meets up with Sgt. Major Dan Perkins, a soldier who fought alongside his father, Lt. Alex Caine, in Vietnam. The elder Caine, in his final battle, was branded a coward by men who "witnessed" the fight from a chopper overhead. The only survivor, Medal of Honor winner and now Republican senator Jefferson Taylor, has confirmed the story. But Perkins tells Sandy that his father was a hero. Before he can explain further, he is killed in action. Haunted by Perkins's statement, Caine and his lover, Abigail Mancini, a Washington D.C.-based investigative reporter, embark on a search for the truth. The discovery of a conspiracy (involving weapons procurement for the military) and a cover-up (which tarnished Alex Caine's record) draws Sandy and Abbie into a tangled web of army generals and Beltway politicians. And Abbie's investigations turn up another survivor of Alex Caine's final battle. As they edge closer to the truth, Abbie, Sandy and anyone connected to them find their lives threatened by guns-for-hire. What's more, Sandy's grandfather, General Caine, seems to be up to his elbows in all of it. With the help of Sandy's A-Team army pals (an ethnic mix of Caldwell, Mayemura, Kruger and Santana), Sandy and Abbie declare war on the conspirators. Despite some improbable typecastingAall the Special Forces soldiers seem to be buff and brainy culinary mastersAHackworth has written a top-notch, action-packed thriller that also ruminates on the state of America's military establishment. Author tour. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sturm und Drang in a debut novel about a military hero's identity crisis. Despite eight generations of warrior forebearers, Captain Sandy Caine keeps asking himself this central question: Was I meant to be a soldier? His doubt stems mostly from the mystery surrounding the demise of his father. Lieutenant Alex Caine died a coward in Viet Nam, Sandy has always been led to believe. But is it true? His grandfather, the revered Four Star General John Pershing Caine, has never left much room for doubt, and yet doubts persist, nagging at Sandy like a shirked responsibility. Then, while on duty in Somalia, in the aftermath of a firefight, he has a fateful encounter. Actually, two. As a result of the firstwith a sergeant who served alongside his fatherhe receives a tantalizing revisionist report. Lieutenant Caine was steadfast and true, the sergeant maintains, but then is killed before he can say much more. The second encounter is with beautiful, imperturbable Abigail Mancini, a reporter for the Washington Chronicle, indefatigable in pursuit of a story. Until, that is, the advent of Sandy, who stops her presses and activates a trade-off of ambition for love. And since she's a skilled investigative journalist, who better than Abby to help dig the dirt off long-buried secretsespecially since there has indeed been a cover-up, an astounding one, reaching into the loftiest corridors of power. With Abby at his side, plus several swashbuckling members of his Special Forces team, Sandy goes after the bad guys. Bullets mash, knives slash, blood gushes, and at the end triumphant Sandy, buoyed by self knowledge, has restored the family reputation, raising Caines to their accustomed place of honor. Decorated soldier, memorist, respected critic, Hackworth (Hazardous Duty, 1996, etc.) in his first fling at fiction gets some of it right. But 512 pages is too much military sprawl. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Hackworth (Hazardous Duty: America's Most Decorated Soldier Exposes the Real Truth About the U.S. Military), a distinguished and decorated former army colonel, presents his first novelAa story of deceit and corruption ranging from Vietnam to the present. The book's hero is Sandy Craine, a young army captain bent on clearing his father's name. But what begins as Craine's personal journey soon gets politicalAand treacherousAas he and his ally at the Washington Chronicle begin uncovering a decades-old conspiracy. Hackworth tells a story that is both exciting and raw, even brutal, with a high body count. And although his dialog is often painfully terse, in the end this is a strong story by an author whose reputation and expertise guarantee a wide readership among those who enjoy modern military fiction.
-ARobert Conroy, Warren, MI
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The ghost of the Vietnam War figures prominently in this action-packed novel of betrayal, greed, and ambition. Army Special Forces Captain Sandy Caine is from a long line of military men and war heroes. Sandy is haunted by his deceased father's service in Vietnam. And Sandy's issue is not just the regular attempts to decipher that war and what it did to the men who fought it but a very personal search for the secret behind a botched mission that branded his father a coward and another man a hero. The hero, closer to Sandy than his father, is Senator Jeff Taylor, a promising presidential candidate and a man with a sterling reputation that is threatened by Sandy's search for the truth. Sandy leads a multiethnic, testosterone-pumped Special Forces team on covert missions from Mogadishu to Bosnia, running into an ambitious reporter out to prove her mettle and make a name for herself as a correspondent. Abigail Mancini has the investigative skills Sandy needs for his personal mission and just the right charm to fill the emotional void in his life. Sandy and Abigail team up to uncover a plot between ambitious politicians and ruthless defense contractors to protect a lucrative aircraft deal and a long-buried secret. The covert operation is headed by the mysterious Mad Max, who communicates surreptitiously via the Internet and commands a secret force of ex-military men. Hackworth, a retired army colonel, delivers a cynical tale for lovers of the action novel and conspiracy theories. Vanessa Bush