Up Country by Nelson Demille
 
Retired Army investigator Paul Brenner is called back into service to investigate the death of a soldier thirty years earlier in Vietnam--a case that stirs up many unpleasant memories. 1,000,000 first printing.
 
Amazon.com Review
In Up Country, Nelson DeMille cannily revives the army career of Chief Warrant Officer Paul Brenner, the cynical, hardworking Criminal Investigation Division man who was forcibly retired after solving the high-profile killing in The General's Daughter. Brenner's called back to investigate the murder of a young army lieutenant by his captain. The catch is, the crime took place during the heat of the Tet Offensive, and the only living witness was a North Vietnamese soldier who described the incident in a 30-year-old letter that has only recently come to light. Soon Brenner, a Vietnam vet, is on an ostensible nostalgia tour of his old stomping grounds. The trip immediately turns dangerous as he heads "up country" to search for the letter writer, accompanied by a gorgeous American businesswoman, who's hiding more than even the smartest CID officer could imagine.
DeMille, who saw his own tour of duty in Vietnam (and even found a letter on a dead Vietnamese soldier), intersperses historical facts and chilling political possibilities with enough local color to provide some serious flashbacks for his fellow veterans. To non-vets the book may seem very long, but the payoff at the end is worth a couple hundred extra pages. --Barrie Trinkle
From Library Journal
In DeMille's latest, Paul Brenner is drug back into the army's Criminal Investigative Division to check out a murder committed 30 years ago in Vietnam. People probably won't have to be drug into the theaters to see the film version, due out from Paramount with John Travolta possibly reprising the role of Paul Brenner, whom he played in The General's Daughter.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 
4.16