In May 1968, Nelson Demille, while serving as a "grunt" in a U.S. Army combat unit in the now-defunct Republic of Vietnam, found a letter on the body of a slain North Vietnamese soldier. Three decades later, Demille -- already one of America's top novelists -- returned to the former battlefields as a middle-aged tourist.
That letter, the return visit and the war that set the stage for both gave Demille all the elements he needed for this entertaining novel, which blends an old murder, war reminiscences, foreign intrigue and romance over 700 pages, with the possibility of even more to come.
"Up Country" is told in the first person by warrant officer Paul Brenner, the same character competently played by John Travolta in the film version of an earlier Demille novel, "The General's Daughter." Brenner is a tough and funny Irish-American army cop with a heart of gold, except, it seems, for criminals and the women who love him.