Red Flags

A woman wanting to know about her father's death in Vietnam drops in on an ex-soldier, who tells her the story of a drug-ring investigation. Joe Barrett's voice has a toughness that adds a hint of noir to a war story involving Vietcong opium fields and those--on both sides--who profited from them. Appropriately, Barrett sounds like his narration is coming from the depths of distant and painful memories. He's also good at dialogue, a must for a novel that has its characters telling much of the story. Juris Jurjevics puts listeners on the ground in wartime Vietnam. Thriller lovers were bowled over by Jurjevics's first book, THE TRUDEAU VECTOR, and have been eagerly awaiting his second. The tension that builds throughout makes this the compelling listen they've been waiting for. J.A.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

July 11, 2011
Jurjevics's intriguing if at times diffuse novel of the Vietnam War centers on Capt. Erik Rider, a military investigator dispatched to a remote base called Cheo Reo to disrupt the funding of North Vietnamese troops through opium production. What he discovers is a web of systemic corruption involving local politicians and South Vietnamese military leaders, all of whom are operating with the tacit approval of U.S. military commanders. Jurjevics (The Trudeau Vector), himself a Vietnam veteran, is best when describing the details of daily life during war, particularly those involving the abuse of the huge native tribal population of Montagnards. Too often, though, the narrative spins off into side episodes that are hard for the reader to connect with Rider's investigation. A framing device used to bracket the plotâa daughter seeking out Rider decades after the war's end for information about her father, who was Rider's commanding officerâends in a predictable resolution after a promising setup.