DuBois, whose Resurrection Day
(1999) had JFK's Bay of Pigs debacle actually starting WWIII, sets up another frighteningly plausible scenario in his latest smart and heartbreaking thriller. Suppose a group of Vietnam MIAs had been secretly shipped to the Soviet Union, where intelligence agents grilled them constantly for almost 30 years? What would've happened to these men when the U.S.S.R. fell apart? In DuBois's version, one of them—Capt. Roy Harper, a bomber pilot shot down in 1972—makes it back home to Berwick, Maine, where he promises to tell his younger brother, Jason, the fantastic story. But before he can continue, two heavily armed Russian mercenaries break in, kill the family dog and threaten Jason, his wife, Patty, and six-year-old son, Paul, with a similar fate. Then things get really exciting and fascinatingly believable as the Harper family splinters. Jason goes off with his idolized brother to confront an American official who can prove Roy's story, while the tougher, more pragmatic Patty reluctantly goes into hiding. DuBois has a way of taking stock characters—the endlessly resourceful hired killer, the mother who'll do anything to protect her child—and surprising us with fresh insights into their behavior. As we learn what happened to Roy and his fellow MIAs, and as the Harper brothers try to get the story out to the world via a New Hampshire TV station, readers who lived through the Vietnam era will be hard pressed not to be tightly gripped and moved to tears. (June 12)
FYI:DuBois is also the author of
Killer Waves (Forecasts, May 20, 2002) and other titles in his Lewis Cole mystery series.
