A Private War

May 6, 2002
Director and screenwriter Duncan (Courage Under Fire) returns with an effective tale about murder on a military base in a time of downsizing. Lt. Col. Meredith Cleon, a career army officer with her eye on a general's star, is handed a crummy posting as the new provost marshal of Fort Hazelton, a decrepit Indiana base. Her first day on the job is an unusually full one: someone has brutally murdered the aide of the base's general; a smuggling operation has been uncovered; and hate-crime graffiti is turning up around the base. The latter is of particular annoyance to Colonel Levy, with whom Meredith has a sordid history. Marshaling her troops (which include a plucky female sergeant, a quasi-civilian investigator and the world's most efficient secretary), Meredith attempts to solve all the crimes at once. This is made particularly difficult by a second murder and the discovery that weapons are being stolen, possibly by a local militia. Duncan doles out Meredith's background, her reasons for staying in the military after reaching the 20-year mark and the difficulties of being a female officer. But his most pointed observations are those of a military run like a corporation, with cost-cutting measures hamstringing officers while giving tyrannical power to the managers who control the purse strings. The state of Meredith's base (and the army as a whole) is nicely summed up by one of her overworked subordinates: "We're understaffed, overextended, and shortchanged—but we manage." Practically begging to be made into a film, this succeeds as a novel of intrigue on its own merits.