The General's Daughter (Paul Brenner) [Kindle Edition]

Nelson DeMille (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Long before the John Travolta film of The General's Daughter (which the author extols in the foreword), Nelson DeMille's seventh mystery was the breakout hit of his career. The rapid-fire dialogue and scenes are cinematic, and the storytelling puts most movies to shame.

The book has three heroes: Paul Brenner and Cynthia Sunhill of the army's Criminal Investigation Division and Capt. Ann Campbell, found dead with her underpants around her neck on the firing range at Fort Hadley, Georgia. Brenner and Sunhill are lowly warrant officers, but as investigators they can theoretically arrest their superiors--as long as their case is airtight. This ups the tension level, as does the fact that Brenner and Sunhill once had an adulterous affair.

The chief problem, though, is too many suspects. Capt. Campbell, the daughter of the general who runs the base, is literally a poster woman for the New Army, a West Point grad and Gulf War hero who posed in a life-size recruitment poster. It's pinned up on her basement wall--and when the sleuths touch the poster it swings back to reveal a hidden playroom stocked with sex toys and videos of many army guys in pig masks and the captain in high heels. She was a high-IQ "two percenter"--and Brenner finds that two percenters often wind up on his desk as homicide suspects. Why is this one a victim? It has something to do with the collected works of Nietzsche on her bookshelf, corruption in high places, and the rag and bone shop of the heart.

This is one racy read, and it crackles with authenticity. DeMille is a Vietnam veteran who does for military justice what John Grisham does for civilians. --Tim Appelo

From Publishers Weekly

After the wit and panache of his bestselling The Gold Coast , DeMille's latest effort may disappoint his fans. The author returns to his more customary stylish-suspense-novel mode but retains a smart-aleck narrator--here, Paul Brenner, of the Army's Criminal Investigation Division. At Fort Hadley, Ga., Ann Campbell, daughter of the post commander, is found murdered under bizarre circumstances. Brenner learns that Ann's entire personal life, in fact, veered toward the bizarre; she even had a secret basement "playroom" in her home. Moral turpitude runs riot at Fort Hadley, and Brenner must wade through muck of all sorts to discover the killer's identity. Too much muck, as it turns out: the detective work becomes repetitious, and suspense is unfortunately in short supply. Brenner's one-liners have none of the punch of John Sutter's wry observations in The Gold Coast --indeed, the device of a waggish narrator doesn't fit these proceedings; the wisecracks seem grafted on. So, too, does a resumed romance between Brenner and an old flame--we don't get a good enough picture of either to care about whatever sparks might fly. Characterization in general is fuzzy, though DeMille captures the often unquestioning regimen of life on a military base. One only wishes that his tale had more spirit and dash. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 728 KB
• Print Length: 512 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0446679100
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1st edition (April 1, 2001)
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000FA5SNE
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (186 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,067 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

I was born in New York City in 1943. My father was a Canadian, serving at that time with the American Navy, and my mother was a Brooklyn native, trying to figure out how to grow a Victory Garden for the war effort.

My family moved to Elmont, Long Island, New York in 1947 where my father was a house builder, and my mother was a homemaker raising four boys.
I attended Elmont public schools, played football, ran track, and was on the wrestling team. I graduated Elmont Memorial High School in 1962 and spent the summer at the beach.

I attended Hofstra University, but left before graduation to join the Army in 1966. I served three years in the United States Army as an infantry lieutenant and spent one year in Vietnam as a platoon leader with the First Cavalry Division. You'll see that I used this experience in my novels "Word of Honor" and "Up Country."

After the end of my military service, I returned to Hofstra where I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History. I married and had two children, Lauren and Alex, and eventually divorced.

I held a series of good and bad jobs between 1970 and 1974, and in that year, for some reason I can't remember, I decided to be a writer. My first books were paperback originals, New York City police detective novels, thankfully all out of print and hard to find.

In 1978, I published my first major novel, "By the Rivers of Babylon," which was a commercial and critical success. Since then, I've written fourteen other novels and had a good time creating my characters John Corey, Ben Tyson (played by Don Johnson in the TNT movie of "Word of Honor"), foxy Emma Whitestone, Paul Brenner (played by John Travolta in the Paramount movie of "The General's Daughter"), sexy Susan Sutter, the never-say-die CIA officer Ted Nash, and my favorite villain, Asad Khalil, a misunderstood Libyan terrorist with unresolved childhood issues.

I am a member of The Authors Guild, the Mystery Writers of America (past President), American Mensa (thank God I don't have to retake that test), and I hold three honorary doctorate degrees (thank God I didn't have to study for them) from Hofstra University, Long Island University, and Dowling College.
I'm married to the love of my life, Sandy Dillingham, whom I met while I was on a publicity tour in Denver. We have a son, James, two years old, and he's keeping me young.

There's more about me on my website. Thanks for reading about me here, and I hope you enjoy my novels.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story that manages to be sad, funny, and a great read., February 23, 2003

By 

Roger J. Buffington (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The General's Daughter (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a novel that showcases many of DeMille's strengths as a writer--it manages to be incredibly sad in parts, and utterly hilarious in others. This is a military detective story, and probably the best one I've ever read. DeMille's authenticity as regards military life in the modern Army is total--he transports the reader into the military culture--which is a culture derived from American culture but nonetheless profoundly separate from it.

The daughter of the Commanding General of Ft. Hadley has been murdered under bizarre circumstances. DeMille's protagonist, Warrant Officer Brenner, a detective of the Army CID, is detailed to discover who, how, and why. This novel is written in the first person from Brenner's perspective and in this novel this perspective works brilliantly. Brenner and his teammate, WO Sunhill, discover that finding the answers to the riddle is like peeling an onion--with multiple layers of intrigue and corruption surrounding the circumstances of the victim's death. Brenner's observations about the investigation, military life, and his approach to crime-busting are all fascinating, possess a wry but sad humor, and contain a gritty authenticity that make this story highly plausible. The characters crackle with life and realism. The story develops smartly and never drags.

This is one of those books that you won't put down. The ending is climactic and startling--and incredibly sad. I was depressed for days after reading this novel, but since then I have read it several more times. This book is an incredibly "good read" and anyone who likes suspense novels will enjoy it thoroughly. Few will read this novel without being moved by it.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Kinky Murder Mystery Lusty But Lacking, May 5, 2005

By 

Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The General's Daughter (Mass Market Paperback)

When Nelson DeMille gets going, there are few fiction writers to beat him. Other than "Finnegan's Wake" in Sanskrit, there's nothing more difficult for a reader than putting down "Plum Island" in the last 150 pages. "The General's Daughter" actually is the reverse, though, pulling you in quickly and then running out of steam.

The concept grabs you fast: A female Army officer is found bound, naked, and dead on the rifle range of a Southern military installation. A Criminal Investigation Division warrant officer is pulled from his undercover case to investigate the homicide, and learns about the victim's secret life, which basically consisted of rough sex games that connected to her interest in aberrant psychology and her own wounded past.

DeMille provides some details into what this is all about, with descriptions that are quite graphic, though more in a clinical than salacious way. I didn't have a problem with this, though I can see why others would. Not only is the victim sexually active, she is actually quite eager to be hurt. At one point, she talks about being raped by a male character as the only time she found him "interesting."

This is thin ice for a writer to skate on, but DeMille carries it off because his depiction of the character, Capt. Ann Campbell, is both vivid and compassionate. DeMille works the reader's libido, creating an edgy, lusty portrait much like Sharon Stone did on screen in "Basic Instinct," the same year of this book's publication. Yet the more you read of her, the sorrier you feel.

"Why do some men think they have to be knights in shining armor?" we read in her journal. "I am my own knight, I am my own dragon, and I live in my own castle."

The problem with "The General's Daughter" is none of the living characters seem as alive. Not only do they lack Capt. Campbell's dark spell, they are rather inert and soulless. Paul Brenner, the CID investigator, has some good wisecracks but his tough-guy routine wears thin.

With him is former flame and rape specialist Cynthia Sunhill who DeMille needs in this book not only to give Paul someone to talk to by way of exposition but also to remind us from time to time that rape and suchlike are bad things most women really don't like. But DeMille's attempts to create some romantic interest between the two investigators feels forced, and by the end of the book, fairly absurd.

Also a problem is the mystery. Though well set up, it just didn't make much sense when it was over. Like other reviewers here note, there are too many suspects and too little is done to fill the reader in on how, other than gut instincts, the investigators come to focus on one. There's a slow crawl to the end, a sudden resolution, and a number of questions DeMille strangely leaves unanswered, like the reappearance of a ring and the disappearance of a material witness in another case.

In the end, I couldn't get Capt. Campbell out of my head, and I'm guessing DeMille couldn't either. After the first 100 pages, the book never seems to go anywhere without her in it. Even though her story has its share of logic gaps, too, she's so erotically high-charged in her uncomfortable, heroic way you kind of skirt over them until after you get through the novel. "The General's Daughter" is one mystery where the victim is more interesting than the crime.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Winner From Demille, November 6, 2007

By 

Kristin Gabriel - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The General's Daughter (Paperback)

Ann Campbell, an army captain and daughter of a famous general, is found dead. With consideration of her position and her father, the army doesn't want this becoming a media event. A military undercover investigator and a sex crimes specialist are brought in to investigate the case. Although you might think you have it all figured out, keep reading. Each secret that's are uncovered about the General's daughter will keep you guessing.

This was the first Nelson Demille book that I read and it got me hooked. His characters are true to life and his story lines are full of twists, turns and surprises