Secret Sanction

June 1, 2001
Brian Haig, son of former secretary of state Alexander Haig, takes aim at the bestseller lists with Secret Sanction, a military/legal thriller set against the backdrop of the Bosnian conflict. Hotshot army lawyer Sean Drummond is assigned to investigate the massacre of 35 Serbian soldiers, apparently by a team of Green Berets. He encounters resistance from the brass right away and the deeper he digs, the worse it gets. Sexual tension with army defense attorney Lisa Morrow and the execution-style death of a reporter who's covering the case add to the high-stakes excitement. If blurbs by Jack Higgins and Jeffery Deaver are any indication, this one's going to be a hit.

June 1, 2001
In Kosovo, 35 Serbian soldiers have been massacred in cold blood, and an American Special Forces unit is suspected of the crime. With the world looking on, Maj. Sean Drummond heads a small investigating team and confronts murder, cover-ups, and pressures to rush to a judgment that Drummond feels is wrong. This first novel by the son of former Secretary of State Alexander Haig is a fast-paced and exciting story of an ugly little war in which there are very few rules and nothing is black or white. Haig skillfully blends multiple layers of threat, blood feud, and collusion, as well as murder, race hatred, vengeance, and mutiny. Apart from his overlong fleshing out of central character Drummond, Haig has fashioned an excellent military legal thriller in the tradition of Herman Wouk's classic The Caine Mutiny and John Katzenbach's Hart's War. For all collections. Robert Conroy, Warren, MI

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2001
\deflang1033\pard\plain\f3\fs24 Fans of military legal dramas such as Herman Wouk's \plain\f3\fs24" Caine Mutiny \plain\f3\fs24 (1952\plain\f3\fs24" ) \plain\f3\fs24 or the more-recent \plain\f3\fs24" Hart's War \plain\f3\fs24 (1999) by John Katzenbach will be thrilled by this first novel. Written by the son of former U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig, the novel is set in Bosnia, where a Special Forces A-Team is accused of ambushing, and murdering, 35 Serbian soldiers. Sean Drummond, a JAG lawyer with a few secrets in his past, is in charge of the investigation. His mission: determine whether charges should be laid against the Special Forces team or whether, as the team claims, it was defending itself against an imminent Serbian attack. The novel has plenty of politics, plenty of excitement, and plenty of first-rate suspense. Drummond is a no-nonsense lawyer who combines intelligence with gumption and penetrates to the heart of the case while simultaneously managing to anger or offend nearly everyone in his path. He is immensely likable and deserves his own series. Legal-thriller readers will line up for this one, and word-of-mouth will generate plenty of requests. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)