Despatched to investigate the suicide of one of DC's most influential defence officials - an ardent, early supporter of the war in Iraq - Drummond and his female partner find themselves in the middle of a tug-of-war between Washington's most influential power brokers and his own personal allegiance to the soldiers dying overseas. What he uncovers are the secrets that led to the war, secrets that once exposed would destroy public support and undermine the presidency. Now, Drummond faces the greatest moral quandary of his life: What is the true meaning of patriotism?
From Publishers Weekly
Despite the intention declared in an author's note to broaden Americans' understanding of the current war in Iraq, bestseller Haig (Private Sector) delivers a routine mystery thriller that awkwardly blends fact and fiction. Lt. Col. Sean Drummond, Haig's wisecracking series hero, finds himself partnered with an exotic female military police officer, Bian Tran, when Clifford Daniels, a high-ranking Defense Department official, is found dead in his Virginia apartment, an apparent suicide. The pair soon learn that Daniels was the U.S.'s main liaison with Mahmoud Charabi, an Iraqi exile who, like the real-life Ahmed Chalabi, was a leading advocate of military action to topple Saddam Hussein. The discovery that Charabi may have been in the employ of Iranian intelligence raises the stakes for the inquiry, which takes place just weeks before the 2004 presidential election. The action detours to the Iraqi war zone before the predictable windup. (Jan.)
Copyright ยฉ Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Sean Drummond, the military investigator who keeps moving from job to job (as events and plot demands dictate), has been temporarily assigned to the CIA. He is still getting himself oriented when a case drops into his lap that could easily blow up in his face if he doesn't handle it diplomatically. Unfortunately, the words Drummond and diplomat rarely appear in the same sentence, but with a dead government official and an unresolved question of suicide or murder on his plate, our hero must learn the art of circumspection and learn it quickly. But when the investigation takes him deep inside the secret corridors of the intelligence community, it's straight shooting, not subtlety, that will keep him alive. The Drummond novels are big, action-packed thrillers that say something meaningful about American politics, and this one is as satisfying as its forerunners. David Pitt
Copyright ยฉ American Library Association. All rights reserved