Laos File [Paperback]

Dale Dye (Author), Gerry Kissell (Designer)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 2008

Military Writers Society of America 2011 BOOK AWARD WINNER The death of a salty old senior NCO who ran special operations in Vietnam leads Marine Gunner Shake Davis on a shocking and potentially lethal quest to find out what happened to hundreds of American POWs. Written by the bestselling author of 'Platoon,' Dale A. Dye.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dale Dye is a Marine officer who rose through the ranks to retire as a Captain after twenty-one years of service in war and peace. He is a distinguished graduate of Missouri Military Academy who enlisted the United States Marine Corps shortly after graduation. Sent to war in Southeast Asia, he served in Vietnam in 1965 and 1967 through 1970 surviving 31 major combat operations. Appointed a Warrant Officer in 1976, he later converted his commission and was a Captain when he deployed to Beirut, Lebanon with the Multinational Force in 1982-83. He served in a variety of assignments around the world and along the way attained a degree in English Literature from the University of Maryland. Following retirement from active duty in 1984, he spent time in Central America, reporting and training troops for guerrilla warfare in El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica. Upset with Hollywood's treatment of the American military, he went to Hollywood and established Warriors Inc., the pre-eminent military training and advisory service to the entertainment industry. He has worked on more than fifty movies and TV shows including several Academy Award and Emmy winning productions. He is a novelist, actor, director and show business innovator, who wanders between Los Angeles and Lockhart, Texas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Warriors Publishing Group (November 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982167008
• ISBN-13: 978-0982167007
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,034,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Get in, sit down and shut up.", April 13, 2009

By 

Reader from Seattle - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Laos File (Paperback)

Of course, as a Marine officer and Southern gentleman, Captain Dye would never utter those words aloud, but dive into his new action novel, Laos File, and you feel he's done just that. From front cover to back, Dye's commanding narrative voice reminds you, "I'm in charge of this vehicle, Buster. Hold on."

Set largely in modern day Vietnam, Laos File's protagonist, U.S. Marine Chief Warrant Officer, Shake Davis, takes us from the quiet gravesite of a fallen friend halfway around the world on a mission to locate and retrieve documents that shed light on the fate of hundreds of missing American soldiers. Not unlike Captain Dye's recent previous novels, Platoon and Run Between the Raindrops, Laos File is action packed, engages from first page to last and true to Captain Dye's inimitable style, often compels the reader to confront uncomfortable truths and harsh reality.

Those Dye fans who say only combat veterans can truly understand the nuance in Captain Dye's writing could not be more wrong. My own view is no civilian can ever truly understand combat veterans until she's read Dye's books and explored the minds of his characters. Like Dye's previous books, Laos File is peppered with pithy, often contradictory observations on the treachery of government bureaucrats "who put soldiers in harm's way alongside war profiteering capitalists," the "flawed system" that rushed to establish a fighting force in Vietnam, the impotence and inefficacy of "starry-eyed progressives" who refuse to face fact. Indeed, one needs no combat experience to understand and appreciate the mindset of a character who says, "Nothing is ever subtle to me. Everything is always a God damned head-on collision - act fast - follow your instincts." Someone wishing to know the heart of a combat veteran need only read the hard scrabble prose of the man who has spent a career introducing Americans to soldiers.

The passion that made Captain Dye Hollywood's most successful military technical advisor - verisimilitude - gritty, no-holds-barred realism - combat portrayed in motion pictures that can be touched, smelled and tasted as well as seen - flows naturally from film to printed page. Laos File is rife with the chaos, confusion and bared teeth of men at war. Combat veterans know exactly what Captain Dye is talking about when his protagonist remembers in a flash to stay close to a gun and move away from a knife. Combat veterans understand the character who struggles for years with his demons and wakes up "hugging his knees, trembling and drenched in sweat," and combat veterans long ago dismissed the lies that come easily to "young men in clean uniforms who never had the painful cramps or felt the warm ooze of @#$% on their thighs as they lay gasping in some jungle ambush."

Combat veterans or not, readers will find pleasure and profit in Laos File. Not every reader will agree with all Captain Dye's observations and conclusions, but his call-you-on-your-bull@#$%, no nonsense story telling is highly compelling and revealing of an author who doesn't feel the need to ask for your blessing. For all these reasons and many more, I give Laos File my heartiest recommendation.

William Schroder
Author, Soldier's heart
Close-up Today With PTSD in Vietnam Veterans
[...]

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laos File an exceptional read!, December 7, 2008

By 

D. Guenther (Morrison, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Laos File (Paperback)

Laos File is a truly fine novel. For me, the pacing and flow of the book
was flawless, and it held my interest to the end. I found the book multi-dimensional, and kept wondering how this terrific story was going to reach resolution. What an exceptional read! I think we need more writers like Dale Dye.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laos File by Dale Dye, January 20, 2009

By 

J. Del Vecchio - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Laos File (Paperback)

Dale Dye's new novel, Laos File, is a military/suspense thriller on the same level with Tom Clancey's works. This one brings us back to 1972 and a series of incidents which determined the fate of American POWs held in jungle camps at the end of the war. Dye's sense of scene and action is acutely honed, and this fast-paced novel is the latest of an impressive body of work.

John M. Del Vecchio
The 13th Valley