Several weeks ago, I returned to my hometown for a class reunion. I will not tell you how may years it has been since I graduated from high school, but it is more than three decades ago and less than five. The Vietnam War was in progress. Several things amazed me. The first was that all my classmates looked extremely middle-aged! (How could they allow that to happen?) A second was that we were all glad to see one another. (We were not always pleased with each other in high school.) The third was that almost all the men had served in Vietnam. We were a small class, only nineteen, but had lost contact rapidly. Visiting with those men after all these years brought home the whole Vietnam Era. One friend mentioned, sending underwear to his nephew in Iraq because in Vietnam he never had enough. His under shorts rotted out in the heat and humidity. This was about as graphic a description of the Vietnam experience as I have ever received.

Since returning from my ???? high school reunion, I read the book "Up Country" by Nelson DeMille. The plot revolves around a soldier’s return to Vietnam decades after his service. Chief Warrant Officer Paul Bremmer, retired from the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, is asked to investigate a murder that took place during the war, thirty years earlier. A North Vietnamese soldier witnessed the murder of an American officer by another Army officer. To investigate this crime, he must return to Vietnam and find that soldier. Bremmer is not pleased to return but takes the assignment anyway. Along the way he is joined by a gorgeous American ex-patriot, Susan Weber, who may be working for the CIA. A sexual relationship develops, complicating the mission and endangering both their lives.

The plot line in this book is secondary to the experience of Bremmer’s return to the battlefields of his youth. This is not a book for the faint hearted. DeMille, who served in Vietnam, is graphic in his descriptions of the horrors of that war. His descriptions of killing "gooks" and of a bloody hand-to-hand struggle are excruciating to read. Two combatants, Bremmer and a North Vietnamese soldier, fight, using just a machete and entrenching shovel as weapons. The brawl ends with Bremmer taking the other man’s head as a trophy. Sadly, this sort of thing happened during this vicious war. DeMille describes young men, who were changed by war. "…you couldn’t guess that we were nice American kids from a nice, clean country. I mean we literally had blood on our hands."

Although the book is extremely intense, it is also suspenseful with sharp, clever banter between the characters of Paul Bremmer and Susan Weber. DeMille develops a sexual tension between them immediately. His writing tends to be sardonic. In the first chapter Bremmer is describing the three bad things that happened to him in one day and says, "…the third bad thing. I’d apparently forgotten to send in my response to my book club, and in my mail was a Danielle Steel novel." (Maybe only a librarian would think this is funny.) His style is fast paced with plenty of dialog.

Vietnam was the nightmare war of my youth. I was enthralled by this book and enjoyed DeMille’s style a great deal. I would recommend "Up Country" to readers who are not easily shocked or offended. It returned me to an intense time and war.

DeMille’s novels are mystery and suspense thrillers. The Paul Bremmer character appeared in an earlier novel, "The General’s Daughter". His most recent novel "Night Fall" was published in 2004. It centers on the mystery, surrounding the explosion of flight TWA Flight 800 over Long Island in 1996. "Wild Fire" is to be published in November 2006. It includes his recurring characters of NYPD Detective John Corey and his FBI Agent wife Kate Mayfield. They also appeared in "Night Fall".

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