All the Ways We Kill and Die: An Elegy for a Fallen Comrade and the Hunt for His Killer

Castner, an Air Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) officer who commanded bomb-disposal units in Iraq, follows his memoir, The Long Walk, with another account of the harrowing EOD world. This time Castner offers a tautly written, first-person look at the death of another EOD officer, his friend Matthew Schwartz, in Afghanistan in January of 2012. The fatal attack on Schwartz sent Castner on a quest to find the killer, and this wide-ranging investigation—in which he interviewed many Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, as well as intelligence operators and others in the EOD community—centers on figuring out who exactly planned and executed the killing, and whether it was “unlucky or targeted.” The working theory was that it was a man known as the Engineer, who had been targeting Americans since the start of the Iraq War. Castner writes in the style of a thriller, replete with military and high-technology jargon (a glossary is included). This is a fast-paced, personal tale that examines some little-known aspects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how they have influenced the current fight against al-Qaeda and ISIS. (Mar.)