Book Review – IN THE NAME OF HONOR by Richard North Patterson
Book Synopsis
‘Home from Iraq, a lieutenant kills his commanding officer – was it self-defence or pre-meditated murder?’
The McCarrans and the Gallaghers, two families with deep ties to the military, have been close for decades. Now a new generation of soldiers is fighting on a distant battlefield, and Lt. Brian McCarran has recently returned from a harrowing tour in Iraq. Traumatised by his war-time experiences, Brian depends on his lifelong friendship with Kate Gallagher, who also happens to be married to Brian’s commanding officer in Iraq, Capt. Joe D’Abruzzo. But Kate is dealing with trauma of her own: since coming home, D’Abruzzo seems a changed man, and lately he’s become paranoid and abusive.
Tragedy strikes when Brian shoots and kills D’Abruzzo on their army post in Virginia. Brian immediately confesses but claims self-defense – D’Abruzzo, a black-belt martial artist, came to his quarters, accused him of having an affair with Kate, and attacked him. Or so Brian says, and now Capt. Paul Terry, one of the army’s most accomplished young lawyers, will defend him in a high-profile court martial. Assisting Terry is Meg McCarran, Brian’s sister, a brilliant and beautiful attorney who leaves her practice in California to dedicate herself to saving her brother.
Before the case is over, Terry will learn that families, like war, can break the sturdiest of souls.
Book Review
This book’s synopsis really caught my attention, the entanglement of the characters in particular lending itself to something I could really sink my teeth into. Going into it with these expectations, I was a little disappointed by the first third of this novel. I found the way Patterson wrote the interpersonal dialogue a little clunky and the spoken vocabularly unrealistic at times. Lack of strength in the editorial department perhaps?
What kept me reading? The compelling story.
Thankfully after a slow start with the prose, Patterson really hit his straps in the latter two-thirds of the novel as the characters headed into the courtroom and the intensity reached fever pitch. I found the detail and strategy brought out through his telling of the jury selection process very clever. There are ducks and weaves and red herrings a plenty to continually keep the reader guessing.
If you are after a literary masterpiece, this is not the book for you. Bestselling author Richard North Patterson is a crafter of plots rather than prose. If you are in the mood for an edge of your seat courtroom drama with gritty wartime reflections, familial deception and a little romance thrown in, In the Name of Honor ticks all these boxes!
BOOK RATING: The Story 4 / 5 ; The Writing 3 / 5
BOOK DETAILS: In The Name of Honor (The Nile)
Genre: Action-Adventure, Crime-Detective, Thriller, Romance
Author Information: Check out Richard North Patterson’s website.
Other Reviews of In The Name of Honor: EzineArticles ; Blogging for a Good Book
www.TheNile.com.au (great online Australian book retailer) sent me this book for review. My receiving this book for free in no way affected my ability to express my honest opinions about it.
