Breaking Ranks: Breaking Ranks

Army Major Mark Isen, last seen in Firefall, is trapped in the Pentagon, ``driving a desk,'' when his mentor, Major General Flynn, asks if he would investigate the suicide of Flynn's nephew, Michael Hauck. Isen jumps at the chance to escape bureaucracy. Young Hauck had been an exemplary soldier, with high ideals; his suicide was not only out of character, but is an embarrassment to his fellow paratroopers--members of an Army elite who, Isen knows, consider other soldiers, including himself, as less than equal. With the beautiful Major Sue Lynn Darlington and Special Agent McCall (black and female, fighting her own battles) to help, Isen soon uncovers the probable master villain behind Isen's death: Lt. Col. Harlan Veir, a media darling possessed of an outsized ego and the need to flaunt it whenever possible. Though the plot exhibits few surprises, its very predictability gives Ruggero latitude to include telling vignettes of life in the Army, where a magazine interview, or a visit from the president, can mean life or death not only to a career but to an entire segment of the military machine. Readers of PI and military fiction alike should enjoy this well-informed yarn, which makes some relevant points about the abuse of power and the declining morale of military careerists in today's world. British, translation, first serial, movie & TV rights: William Morris. (Dec.)