The Price of Honor

October 4, 1999
Retired army colonel and reporter Hackworth's first novel, a fine-tuned military thriller, follows on the heels of his two acclaimed nonfiction critiques of the U.S. military, About Face and Hazardous Duty. While conducting a mission in Somalia, Special Forces Captain Sandy Caine (an eighth generation warrior) meets up with Sgt. Major Dan Perkins, a soldier who fought alongside his father, Lt. Alex Caine, in Vietnam. The elder Caine, in his final battle, was branded a coward by men who "witnessed" the fight from a chopper overhead. The only survivor, Medal of Honor winner and now Republican senator Jefferson Taylor, has confirmed the story. But Perkins tells Sandy that his father was a hero. Before he can explain further, he is killed in action. Haunted by Perkins's statement, Caine and his lover, Abigail Mancini, a Washington D.C.-based investigative reporter, embark on a search for the truth. The discovery of a conspiracy (involving weapons procurement for the military) and a cover-up (which tarnished Alex Caine's record) draws Sandy and Abbie into a tangled web of army generals and Beltway politicians. And Abbie's investigations turn up another survivor of Alex Caine's final battle. As they edge closer to the truth, Abbie, Sandy and anyone connected to them find their lives threatened by guns-for-hire. What's more, Sandy's grandfather, General Caine, seems to be up to his elbows in all of it. With the help of Sandy's A-Team army pals (an ethnic mix of Caldwell, Mayemura, Kruger and Santana), Sandy and Abbie declare war on the conspirators. Despite some improbable typecasting--all the Special Forces soldiers seem to be buff and brainy culinary masters--Hackworth has written a top-notch, action-packed thriller that also ruminates on the state of America's military establishment. Author tour.

May 1, 1999
U.S. Army Special Forces Capt. Sandy Caine is an eight-generation West Point man whose father somehow shamed the family in Vietnam. With the help of gung-ho reporter Abigail Mancini, Sandy is about to find out what really happened. From a retired army colonel whose About Face was a best seller.

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 1999
The ghost of the Vietnam War figures prominently in this action-packed novel of betrayal, greed, and ambition. Army Special Forces Captain Sandy Caine is from a long line of military men and war heroes. Sandy is haunted by his deceased father's service in Vietnam. And Sandy's issue is not just the regular attempts to decipher that war and what it did to the men who fought it but a very personal search for the secret behind a botched mission that branded his father a coward and another man a hero. The hero, closer to Sandy than his father, is Senator Jeff Taylor, a promising presidential candidate and a man with a sterling reputation that is threatened by Sandy's search for the truth. Sandy leads a multiethnic, testosterone-pumped Special Forces team on covert missions from Mogadishu to Bosnia, running into an ambitious reporter out to prove her mettle and make a name for herself as a correspondent. Abigail Mancini has the investigative skills Sandy needs for his personal mission and just the right charm to fill the emotional void in his life. Sandy and Abigail team up to uncover a plot between ambitious politicians and ruthless defense contractors to protect a lucrative aircraft deal and a long-buried secret. The covert operation is headed by the mysterious Mad Max, who communicates surreptitiously via the Internet and commands a secret force of ex-military men. Hackworth, a retired army colonel, delivers a cynical tale for lovers of the action novel and conspiracy theories. ((Reviewed August 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)