In the Name of Honor

A dramatic military trial is at center stage in this engrossing mystery. Lieut. Brian McCarran, a member of a distinguished military family, is on trial for shooting and killing his commanding officer. Capt. Paul Terry, an excellent trial lawyer who is on his way out of the military and into a lucrative job at a civilian law firm, is brought in as defense counsel. McCarran is claiming self-defense, but Terry knows there are secrets being kept and more to this killing than he's being told. John Bedford Lloyd reads with clear, almost clinical intonation, and this works well in the stiff question and answer phases of the trial, but not quite as well when the book moves outside the courtroom. These sections could have used a little more passion in their delivery. Still, this is a small quibble; this book is Patterson at his best, and the listener is in for a suspenseful and thought-provoking listen. A Henry Holt hardcover. (June)