Rating: 
Summary: great writer
Review: I listened to the unabridged audio cd version of this book, and it was wonderful. My only complaint is, having grown up in Ohio, Karen Harper should not have sounded like she was from South Carolina. midwest and southern accents are not the same. Other than that tiny detail, I highly reccomend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Just look for my name. You'll know 5 stars. Nelson DeMille is my favorite author. This book was great. I cried at the end. In typical DeMille fashion, the romantic relationship is moving; it is solid in a wierd loving kind of way like Upcountry. The main character -- Ben Tyson -- is fantastic. The reader is so torn between whats right and forgiveness. What more can I say. Just read it.
Rating: 
Summary: DeMille Delivers
Review: Nelson DeMille knows of what he writes. As a Lt. in the service in Nam and a keen human observer--we are given over 700 pages that draw us into a world we Americans sometimes do not like to revisit.The central character, Ben Tyson, is a modern day commuter with a cushy job in NY, a family out in the 'burbs and a sense of honor that is about to be tested to the inth degree. Somone has written a well selling book about the atrocities at Hue. The author's two witnesses have made Ben Tyson culpable for his unit's macabre killing behavior at a French hospital during the war. And now the government plans to make him their scape goat. After 20 years of living with the past, the truth starts to come out. Slowly, in stages, as DeMille builds the tension with episodes between Tyson's wife, his lawyer, his reunion with his men, the author who revealed his secrets, and a cout-martial trial. I always appreciate DeMille's well researched novels. Mixing actual events with fiction using humor and pathos is his baliwick. Characters you want to know and dialogue that snaps. A moving read of war, adventure, and trust.
Rating:
Summary: Demille At His Best!
Review: This book brings out everything that a Demille fan expects from him: great story line, page-turning intrigue, and most importantly, Demille's own inimitable sardonic dialogue that is unmatched by any author. If you liked John Cory in Plum Island and Lion's Game (which any Demille fan does), then you'll really appreciate Ben Tyson in this one. Even better, he gets a sidekick (his attorney) who's just as bad/good as he is. The story is built well, providing ample, but not too lengthy background of the main story - a civilian murder in Vietnam. This is NOT, however a Vietnam War story as much as it is a trial of an upwardly mobile family man from New York. AS you move through the book, you will find the pages turning faster adn faster, especially the last 100 pages. Plum Island was my favorite until this read. Truly excellent!
Rating:
Summary: an incredible book
Review: This is a fantastic novel, the characters are practically three dimensional. Demille really knows how to write. This is a good book for a vacation, it's exciting yet has some depth to it, it's not just a pure thriller that moves along at the speed of light.
Rating:
Summary: an incredible book
Review: This is the best of DeMille's books. It is a story of powerful emotions and images. This is truely a story about a man who gives his word of honor to his men only to have them all break their word. The ending is powerful. I have re-read this book several times and get something new out of it each time. Don't hesitate, get this book today.
Rating:
Summary: This novel is huge, giant, awesome and then some.
Review: This novel is one of the most well crafted pieces of fiction I've ever read, it carefully and brilliantly intertwines a present day controversy with a torrid tale of misconduct in Vietnam. The mystery is revealed to the reader bit by bit while the protagonist is tugged left and right by various agencies of the government and his own family.
DeMille's style of writing gives a strong male protagonist that I can only suppose tends to reflect the authors own humor and sarcasm as well as honor, integrity and outlook on the world. He gives is opinion on many subjects, however, the often uncomprehendible stupidity of the government and its peter principle type workers come within the sights of his weaponized wit most often and with the greatest humor and insight.
I enjoy DeMille's writing because I like and root for his main characters, usually written in the first person he gives life to a person I'd like to call friend. The plots are always exciting and fast paced, page turning and well constructed. This work is now my second favorite, but only by a hair, behind The Gold Coast. Because it's a different kind of story, I can easily say that this work is the best of it's type I've ever read by far.
I strongly recommend this book to any that enjoy war type stories, lawyer type stories or simply stories about man's inner struggle to live honorably and still always do what's right in a sometimes cloudy world of law and justice. This is, to say again, a huge novel and one of the best I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read
Review: This was the fifth DeMille book that I have read. I started with Plum Island, moved to The Gold Coast, and followed with Spencerville, and The General's Daughter. This puts a little context on the comments that follow. Obviously I enjoy his writing, and have several more of his books on the shelf ready to begin reading (actually, I've started "The Charm School" already.) Overall, I found "Word of Honor" to be a "good read." The storyline held my interest throughout the lengthy book. I enjoyed the way DeMille used the flashbacks to gradually reveal more and more of what actually happened at the hospital. I also enjoy DeMille's sense of humor. The disturbing sub-message was that no one came back from Vietnam without some horrifying story of a personal atrocity that they either witnessed or participated in (as was the case for Tyson, Picard, and Corva). I found Tyson's unwillingness to fight for himself a little hard to believe. I also thought that the outright acceptance of Kelly's testimony by all of the parties (the prosecution, the judge, the panel, etc.) to be a bit of a stretch. I kept expecting the Sister to be more involved in the ending. But, with these few minor criticisms, I found the book to be entertaining a well worth reading. I look forward to reading more of Mr. DeMille's offerings.
Rating:
Summary: Just Doesn't Get Any Better.
Review: Well. That may not be true when you consider the Vietnam War, a backdrop for many DeMille characters either directly or indirectly. This is my favorite DeMille novel. In many respects it may be the one in which he comes the closest to accurately describing the truth of the pain and haunting memories that all of us who served there or who had brothers, sons or daughters who served there, feel. Relentlessly. Over and over again. Ben Tyson has come back from his tour "across the pond" whole. At least visibly. Married. Corporately knighted. Great wife. Great sex. Great house in the 'burbs. All that smell of blood and death locked up in a padlocked footlocker somewhere in the basement. But as it turns out, now, years later, a book is about to be released about an event he participated in almost a score of years earlier. We all recall My Lai and Lt. Calley and Captain Medina. This is like that, although geographically venued at a French hospital "60 clicks north of Danang and 30 clicks south of Quang Tri" in Hue. (Those are my quotes not DeMille's. I know where Hue is. I spent a year there.) DeMille brings us along slowly, drawing from vast personal experience. Tyson gets called back in to stand trial. Clearly the military wants to distance themselves from the war, savage Tyson, and go back to making those "Army of One" commercials. (This is only 10-12 years after the the war and life was still unpleasant for the professional military person.) Tension; Tyson's life upturned; marital strife; a wife that wants out who 'didn't sign on for this;' a Military Court Martial; his guilt . . . all of our guilt. Great story. The resolution is rewarding but it is the journey that teaches all of us, them that did and them that didn't, how we all lost innocence never to be found again. You might want to read DeMille's "Up Country," written 15 years later, about returning to Vietnam. It's a long journey. The reader has a chance to embrace great writing and learn a lot as well.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Compares to Military Honor
Review: When a movie is about to come out, as this is, I am always excited to see how different reading the book was from watching it on the screen - time will tell. In the meantime, this is one of many wonderful DeMille novels, because the character development is well developed. Benjamin Tyson, a corporate man, who on the outside appears to be one of the most balanced people around, one day is faced with his past. He, like many men, and especially military men, are conditioned to disown emotions, to get on with the present moment. He took a solemn oath between himself, and the men who served under his leadership, 18 years prior. His honor is about to be tested as he sits on the commuter, heading for work, in New York, when he reads a story in the daily newspapers. This story explores what really happened in My Lai, 18 years prior to the date of this article. Also, a book is about to be released, during the time that this story hits the news wires. And Benjamin Tyson is suddenly faced with the conflict between his honor as a married man, who is prosperous, and looked up to by all, versus, his duties as a Platoon leader, 18 years prior. He has no control over the perception that the reporter and author place on his past. The army gets involved, because this is what they do, to save their bacon. But, his wife decides that this is not what she bargained for, in marrying him. And to maintain his sense of military honor, Tyson doesn't even tell his attorney the entire truth. His platoon had sworn to never tell the world what they had done. And the only person who could reveal enough details, to set Tyson free is someone who is not military, who was there, during this massacre. This is a wonderful look at male psyche, military law, the power of the press, and what happens when one denies the painful past. DeMille's books are excellent - I've read at least 10 of them. And I place them in a league with Leon Uris and Jeffrey Archer.
| 
