The General Hardback - 1998

In the classic tradition of Seven Days in May and the novels of Nelson DeMille and David Baldacci, an extraordinarily exciting tale of mortal secrets and murder in the labyrinthine world of the Pentagon, along the suddenly ominous streets of Washington, and in the lurking shadows just beyond the Beltway.

In one of the most astonishing commercial debuts in many years, Patrick A. Davis joins the ranks of some of the best contemporary storytellers with The General, a novel that reaches back in time to peel the layers of evil from a brilliantly concealed episode of treachery, death, and deception during the Vietnam War era. Set in present-day Washington, where power and ambition have attained new levels of insanity, The General is masterfully plotted fiction -- where only the unexpected can truly be expected.

Death by a thousand cuts. The investigators probing the brutal murder of the Air Force Chief of Staff know that the General's death had been precipitated by a particularly gruesome act of Vietcong torture. Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Jensen, the officer assigned to the case, discovers that the General's death is a link in a chain of hideous crimes, beginning with closely guarded secrets of the Vietnam War and extending now to the highest levels of the U.S. government. With lives, careers -- and history -- in the balance, Jensen is caught between blind allegiance to authority and a nobler, higher patriotism. His path to the truth is strewn with minefields -- and the answers he seeks have shocking consequences.