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MORTAL ALLIES
by Brian Haig
Warner Books, May 2002
485 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0446530263


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

This is such a mess of a book. It's at least 150 pages too long, full of dense explanatory passages that stick out everywhere. The protagonist is 75 percent jackass. And yet, every time I put it down, I picked it back up, because there are flashes of major talent showing in the narrative.

Sean Drummond, a Major with the Judge Advocate General's office is rushed to Korea while on vacation, to second chair a trial of a seemingly indefensible murderer. Thomas Whitehall stands charged with rape and necrophilia, among other crimes. The victim? His lover, who serves as a soldier attached to the U.S. forces and who just happened to be the son of the South Korean defense minister.

His civilian lawyer is Katherine Carlson, a woman Drummond has despised since law school, but she asked for his assistance because she needs someone knowledgeable of all the aspects of military law, and indeed the military. In law school, the two behaved so badly toward each other that they were not allowed in each other's classes (do they even have two sections of upperclass law subjects?) Drummond badmouths her, he makes endless assumptions and accusations about her, which are seldom justified. For her part, she calls him "Attila", makes no attempt to figure out how to behave in Korea, which results early on in her getting shoved, uses the media against Drummond's advice, and shows a lot of arrogance and self-righteous behavior. Drummond knows nothing about gays or lesbians, nothing about Korea, doesn't want to know and shows little sign of wanting to learn how not to be a judgmental jerk. Oh, yeah, and he's completely endearing when he refers to a particular body part by name.

So why did I keep reading? Because under all the dreck was an intriguing legal thriller. Whitehall is well-liked and has an excellent reputation in the Army; the issues of who gets to investigate and incarcerate and deal with. The Army does not want this case to go to trial; it's ugly and embarrassing and from the JAG office on down, the defense team is being sabotaged. But could Whitehall possibly have been framed, with all the evidence against him? And if framed, then by whom - after all, he's a seemingly good guy and good soldier, who's old friends and co-workers all like him.

I don't get why the author, who, by the by, is the son of Alexander Haig, could not have created a character with a little more brain and a little less swagger. When he's working for his client, when he's explaining the law or how the Army functions, he's smart as a whip, fast and articulate. He catches on at times very quickly and is an excellent legal foil; at other times, he just knows things, and he is often dead wrong about what he knows. When he has to cope with the possibility that someone he knows is a lesbian, he turns into a homophobic moron. He reminds me too well of a repugnant character I encountered years ago who couldn't deal with a woman who used "Ms." at a title -- how was he to talk to her if he didn't know she was married? Drummond's assumptions about everyone he works with are often misguided and not at all endearing, as I think Haig wants us to believe. He uses phrases like "I grinned stupidly" which just drive me nuts. So stop grinning stupidly, ask, and learn something instead of tripping over your non-stop prejudices.

The need to explain the problems of dealing with crimes in a foreign land do take up a lot of space, as do the endless arguments between Carlson and Drummond. The book still went on and on and on. Somewhere in here is a gem of a 250 or 275 page legal story with smart, talented lawyers involved with a very tough system. If only that were the book that had been published.

Reviewed by Andi Shechter, April 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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