by Peter Straub
First published 2009
Dr. Michael Poole receives an urgent call that changes everything. His old Vietnam War buddies need him for something that goes back decades to their shared service. Poole joins the lawyer, the blue collar worker, and the writer on a mission that spans from Washington D.C. to the Far East and finally to New York City. They carry a secret from the war that binds them together, and now that secret has surfaced in the worst possible way. Someone from their past has returned as a brutal killer, leaving a trail of bodies across the globe. The four men must use everything they learned in Vietnam to track down this murderer before more people die. But hunting someone who knows all their tactics means confronting not just a killer, but the darkness they thought they had left behind in Southeast Asia.
Genres: adventure, suspense, mystery, crime, thriller, action
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Washington D.C., Far East, New York City, Southeast Asia
Period: Vietnam War
562 pages · Trade Paperback · Anchor Books/Random House
Content warnings: violence