Ida Kusiak Kusiak من عند Kurminskoe 100000، كازاخستان من عند Kurminskoe 100000، كازاخستان

I loved this.

This is one of three books I read during a week on Cape Cod extending over the fourth of July weekend 2011. It's a rollicking good tale, exciting while it lasts, and well researched in terms of its details about Vietnam today versus Vietnam during the war. I read it because "it was there" in my in-laws house and they had read it before visiting Vietnam. I'm glad I read it, but it's really a TV adventure movie when all is said and done - granted, with a lot of well researched local detail. The author served in Vietnam in some of the exact areas he writes about, so there's an unmistakable authenticity there. I recommend Annabelle Nelson's review(I do not know her, but her review is on this site): Annabelle Nelson Sep 01, 2009 Annabelle Nelson rated it 3 of 5 stars Paul Brenner, a former army infantry man in Vietnam, army intelligence investigator, and now retired gets rope into going back to Vietnam on an ambiguous mission of finding a person who had seen a US captain kill a US lieutenant A young woman, Susan Brenner, is an investment banker in Saigon and inexplicably pursues Paul sexually as well as a logistician to help him with his journey north of Hanoi almost to the Chinese border. I liked this book a lot, it was formulaic with the older thick sk...morePaul Brenner, a former army infantry man in Vietnam, army intelligence investigator, and now retired gets roped into going back to Vietnam on an ambiguous mission of finding a person who had seen a US captain kill a US lieutenant A young woman, Susan Brenner, is an investment banker in Saigon and inexplicably pursues Paul sexually as well as a logistician to help him with his journey north of Hanoi almost to the Chinese border. I liked this book a lot, it was formulaic with the older thick skinned, smart ass rebellious hero in league with a younger femme fatale operative, almost like a Sean Connery movie. But the vividly, detailed research on the Vietnam battles, the evenness in presenting both the US and Viet Cong atrocities, and the viciousness of power politics in back room make the book almost great. He draws interesting characters making even me like a male chauvinist, and making the head of the Vietnamese police interesting even as he tortures people. More than a good read.