Customer Reviews

In the Name of Honor

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Brian McCarran is the son of the army chief of staff and comes from a long line of heroes. After returning from Iraq he is different. We find out how different when he kills his commanding officer and husband of a close family friend. He's defended by military lawyer Paul Terry, a short timer, with the opportunity to jump to a large criminal defense firm in New York and his sister Meg who is the family enabler.

This book is written into the context of the struggle the military has had with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its role in the lives of soldiers and its impact on the military criminal justice system. Mr. Patterson weaves a complex tale that,I think fairly, navigates the complexities of the issue and its impact on soldiers, their families and the military system itself. Add in twisted family dynamics, secrets, an affair and betrayal and you have a toxic cocktail of the highest magnitude. The book appears to be a straight ahead courtroom novel, but it takes an interesting twist at the end, presenting Paul Terry with an ethical crisis of the highest magnitude.

This book is a great read. It felt real, it moved quickly and I found it hard to put it down. I found myself caring for the characters and wondering what would happen to them. This is a can't miss story

In the Name of Honor is a legal and psychological case study that explores the meaning of "honor" and the conscious and unconscious interplay between personal morality, family loyalty and professional obligations. Well researched and presented without bias or conclusion, Patterson allows his multi-dimensional characters to tell the story through their own filters of experience and need. As the truth unfolds, it becomes evident that Brian is not the only character for whom the past and the present are interwoven to such an extent that their freedom to understand and control their judgment and actions is compromised. There is a lot of necessary detail and through the telling and retelling of the same story, the reader is able to have some experiential understanding of the hovering presence of trauma in the minds and psyche of people. In the hands of a less able writer, the combination of adultery, murder, suicide, the military, Iraq and PTSD would have created a toxic manuscript rather than one that is compassionate, thought provoking and honorable.

This book has it all. I can just picture the handsome military lawyer, Captain Paul Terry, as he takes on a case representing the well-connected golden boy, Lieutenant Brian McCarran, on charges of murder and adultery.

You see, Lt McCarran's father is the Chief of staff of the army, and has been tapped for the top position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Cpt Terry has only two months left to serve as a Jags Corp officer, after being hired by a top notch Wall Street firm, and he hopes that this case will be resolved quickly. He was assigned this case by his commanding officer and also has a reputation to have never lost a case as a prosecutor and only a few as a defense lawyer.

Mr. Patterson takes the reader on a journey that explores not only the JAG system in the military, but also the dynamics within a four generation military family, and the daily life of a soldier in Iraq. He expertly educates the reader on the definition of PTSD, and how the military code has not caught up to the reality of our present time and situation in the world.

I am always spellbound by the stories Mr. Patterson writes, and this one did not disappoint me one bit. His novels are not formulated, fill in the blank stories, in which the supporting cast is the only thing that changes, book to book. Instead, his novels are superbly crafted sagas that I truly treasure and take my time with, rather than speed read over some of the content.

This book is not an action-packed thriller of the Tom Clancy or W.E.B. Griffin variety, but is rather a fine suspense novel, that builds slowly to a conclusion that kept me guessing until the end.

I suggest that when you get this book, you set aside some quality time to just get lost in the story. I stayed up quite late several nights in a row and really didn't want to put this book down at all!

I highly recommend this book.

This is the third novel by Patterson that I have reviewed for Amazon Vines, and, while The Spire and Eclipse were excellent, this is even better. Perhaps it is my frustration at the lack of adequate help being provided for the children that we are sending to battle in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then allowing them to return home severely damaged in body and spirit with the solid reality of PTSD that attracts me to this novel. Whatever, it is an amazing story.

Courtroom dramas exist in a fair number. Many of us who are not privy to the details of the law profession may have formed our ideas of how things work by watching L.A. Law or Perry Mason on TV. There the entire case needs to be cleanly wrapped up in the alotted 60 minutes (minus commercials). A truer picture might be derived from reading true case histories by practicing succesful attorneys as offered by Louis Nizer in My Life In Court.

For a writer to dare to build almost the entire body of a 400 page novel to a court proceeding requires a knowledge and understanding of the process that goes well beyond research, and those are qualities that Patterson has. However, tweak it into an area where the author has less personal experience, specifically a military court martial, and the hazards increase. Once again Patterson proves his mastery.

This novel revolves around the concept of honor as it is drilled into cadets at military colleges like West Point. It includes elements of family, generations of family, with military credentials to live up to. In today's time, consider Senator John McCain -- son and grandson of U.S. Navy Admirals, war hero in his own right, but carrying the burden of that ancestry. At the core of this novel is such a dynastic family.

Patterson delves into the mindset of those who serve, and those who wait at home. It includes a terrifying look into the horrors of conflict in Sadr City in Iraq, the brutal decisions an officer must make in a split second, the interaction between that officer and his immediate superior who is also a member of a family closely intertwined with his own. And again, he tells this superbly well.

Finally, in the best manner of Patterson's style he introduces a twist to the tail of the tale that is totally unexpected, and leaves one component of the relationships unresolved. No need to tidy up every loose end and have a perfect happy ending. Just get it right. Perhaps for Patterson this was simply a matter of doing it "In the Name of Honor".

In June of 2005, Lieutenant Brian McCarran, shoots and kills Captain Joseph D'Abruzzo, his company commander in Iraq as well as the husband of Brian's close friend, Kate Gallagher. Thirty-one year old JAG Corps Captain Paul Terry is scheduled to start a lucrative job on Wall Street, but he defers his plans to defend McCarran, whose father is Anthony McCarran--the army's chief of staff, a decorated career soldier, and Kate's godfather. Kate's family and the McCarrans have been close for many years; Tony McCarran was a good friend of Kate's father, Jack, who was killed in Vietnam.

After meeting Brian's sister, Meg, a lawyer who left her job in San Francisco to lend her support to Brian, Terry is drawn to this beautiful, self-confident, and strong-willed woman whose past mirrors his own. As he gets to know Brian better, Terry learns that the lieutenant deteriorated emotionally as a result of a horrific tour of duty in Iraq; Paul decides to use post-traumatic stress disorder as part of his defense strategy. As time passes, however, the attorney develops a feeling of unease. His instincts tell him that he is not seeing the entire picture. Who is lying to him and why?

"In the Name of Honor," by Richard North Patterson, is a pedestrian and formulaic legal thriller that is weakened by turgid descriptive writing, stilted dialogue, and repetitious exposition. For the most part, the characters are familiar types: Terry is ambitious, hard-driving, and brilliant; Meg is fiercely protective of her little brother who suffered as a child with a dysfunctional mother; Brian is a stoic soldier who wants to do "the honorable thing," even if it costs him his reputation and his freedom. With the exception of a few engrossing courtroom scenes, the novel is sluggishly paced, convoluted, and uninvolving. It is obvious from the start that there are big surprises in store, but it takes far too long to get from point a to point b. John Lescroart's "Betrayal" is a more nuanced, enlightening, and suspenseful novel about the War in Iraq and the steep price paid by the soldiers who served there.

Unitl last summer I had pretty much given up on Richard North Patterson's ability to write a novel that didn't serve as a vehicle for him to preach on his particular political and social viewpoints. Then, my confidence was partially restored when he came out with The Spire, a highly entertaining novel of psychological suspense that is reminiscent of the suspense thrillers that had, at one time, made him one of my favorite authors. Now, with In The Name Of Honor he's gone a long way to working his way back up the list of my favorite authors. Patterson's latest is a courtroom drama that, at its heart, involves a young lieutenant in the Army, recently home from Iraq, accused of murdering his commanding officer, and of one of the Army's most accomplished young lawyers in charge of his legal defense. In telling this story, Patterson takes the reader deep into the lives of those who serve in the military. The legal drama culminates in a dramatic court martial that hinges on a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. To be honest, given my dislike of Patterson's tendency to use several of his previous books as a platform to espouse his viewpoint du jour, I was concerned the author was going to use his new book to preach on his negative viewpoint of how the military and the VA "turn a blind eye" to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD. My concern, however, was unnecessary. To his credit, Patterson's tale is much more than a tension-building courtroom drama. It is also an engrossing story about the McCarrans and the Gallaghers, two military families that have been close for decades and that share a tangled past. In my opinion, Patterson's story is one of slow-building, yet steady suspense filled with richly-developed, credible, though (in several cases) not very admirable characters; and it is a tale that kept me fixed to my seat in order to find out what happens next. While In The Name Of Honor is not as good as some of Patterson's early books such as Degree Of Guilt, The Final Judgment, Eyes Of A Child and Silent Witness, it is the best book he's written in many years.

My first introduction to Richard North Patterson came with his amazing 'Degree of Guilt' in the mid-90's when I was first getting into courtroom thrillers. Like many, my first real legal thriller came via a John Grisham novel. Don't get me wrong, the guy can write good books, but when compared with some of the other authors writing in the same genre, Grisham is overall just so-so (IMO). Degree of Guilt was awesome. Probably my favorite book by RNP to date. Since then I have kinda had a roller-coaster reading relationship with his books. For a while I picked up everything by him, and almost out of nowhere, my interest just kinda fizzled out. I can't exactly put my finger on why, but it just did. While I kept reading Phillip Margolin (one of the all-time best leagal thriller authors out there) and Steve Martini (another winner), I just sorta left RNP behind.

Jump ahead a few years...here we are again, and 'In The Name of Honor' arrives in my mailbox from the amazon Vine program (which is seriously awesome, BTW) and here I am in what is initially very familiar territory. I see after a few chapters that both of us have grown...my taste in books and Mr. Patterson's writing. Similar--yet deeper, if that makes any sense.

In The Name of Honor gives us several great characters, plenty of military insight, drama and of course, what I love most: great courtroom scenes. In fact, the best part of the book had to have been the legal drama found within the courtroom, hands down. Is Brian McCarran guilty of murder? Well first off, he's ADMITTED to killing Captain Joe D'Abruzzo, but claims self-defense and in another twist, he cannot recall all the details revolving around the death. Truth or just a cheap way to get around what really happened? Is he really ruthless, or is he a victim of Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD)? Details begin to surface regarding D'Abruzzo's wife and children that does not paint him in the most favorable light...but was he just that kind of man, or was it because of his voluntary military service in a combat zone? There are plenty of arguments claiming PTSD is more psycho-babble than reality, and just as much (if not more) evidence suggesting that PTSD is REAL and affects everyone from babies and battered women to combat vets.

What do we believe? JAG attorney Paul Terry is assigned to handle the case--which is far from an easy job as the victim (D'Abruzzo) was the husband of a family friend. But as you may know, as a member of the military--even someone so close to wrapping up his service and moving on to civilian life as Paul is--is still subject to rules & reg's of military life, which often means doing jobs you would rather not do. Paul certainly has his work cut out for him despite his concerns. The title of the book, In The Name of Honor, in retrospect, was incredibly well considered. Without giving away too much, if you are considering this RNP novel, I say jump in with both feet and he will not only entertain you, but give you plenty to think about along the way...I know I certain felt that way. I was satisfied enough that I eagerly await his next book, which may not mean much to you, but to this reader, it means a lot. Great effort.

Army JAG Captain Paul Terry routinely won his courts-martial prosecutions before he became a defense counsel. Afterward, he still won most of his cases. But now, just a month before he is scheduled to leave the service and begin to rake in the money in a high-powered law firm, he's been assigned to lead the defense of Lieutenant Brian McCarran, the son of the Army's top four-star general. Will his carefully planned life just be put on hold, or will he be changed forever?

Brian has admitted killing Captain Joe D'Abruzzo, the husband of a life-long family friend. McCarran claims self-defense but can't remember all the details. He thinks he discharged a gun as an enraged D'Abruzzo allegedly bodily attacked him. Both men had recently seen combat in Iraq, and both, according to witnesses, had exhibited signs of post traumatic stress since returning home. D'Abruzzo's two young children were sometimes afraid of their father, and his wife, Kate, reluctantly admitted her husband had struck her more than once. McCarran, unmarried, claims such severe night sweats that he had stopped dating, but some, including the prosecutors, think Brian and Kate might have been a lot more than friends and that their intimacy could have ignited the confrontation that lead to Joe's shooting. Perhapas McCarran deliberately murdered his former commanding officer so he could have Kate all to himself.

Meanwhile, General Anthony McCarran, a man admired by many and the presumptive next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, answers some questions for Terry about the complicated interconnections of the McCarrans and the Gallaghers (of whom Kate is one and whose mother, Rose, is close to the general), but mainly keeps his command distance from the judicial proceedings.

And all of the above is only part of the intricate web of history, secrecy and deceit. Needless to say, Paul Terry has his hands full. Terry also has Brian's older sister, a civilian attorney, breathing down his neck. She has been protective of her brother since their mother's death when they were children, and she is determined to be an operative part of his defense. She also becomes increasingly important to Paul on a personal level.

The In the Name of Honor is an ambitious, meticulous courtroom thriller that brings to mind, broadly, The Caine Mutiny: A Novel and A Few Good Men. Richard North Patterson leads the reader through the preliminary criminal inquiries into the various stages of Brian's court martial. The testimony, the objections, the motions, the defense strategy are all present and accounted for. At times, this attention to detail may seem almost too fastidious because the reader may already have a pretty good idea what is coming, but Patterson reasonably wants all the building blocks there.

It is the human component though that matters more than the technicalities of courtroom maneuvering. Patterson compares the tolls on soldiers and their families during the Vietnam War (where Anthony McCarran and Kate's father took part in their horrors or war and where the latter was killed in action) with those during the Iraq War, and finds not much has changed in both the extremity of war and the different stress of trying to readjust after shipping home. The novel focuses on psychological injuries and tendencies. The aloneness that many of the characters feel or at least project is a theme. Often (perhaps too often?), the author emphasizes characters themselves feeling alone or someone thinking they look all alone, etc. They yearn to feel whole (hoping others will help them be complete, or longing to give that gift to someone else), but the hard world -- and their own actions or inactions -- prevent it. Terry finds that the more he becomes embroiled in the McCarran/Gallagher morass, the more judgmental he becomes. He began with certain preconceived notions, but as the sensational, headline grabbing case reaches decision, everything he thought he understood has been upended, including his own ethics before the bar.

IN THE NAME OF HONOR does indeed consider what honor means. The lengths to which people will go to uphold the concept according to their own, or more likely, a loved one's definition, is tested with twist upon twist (although, again, some of these twists can be foreseen). But honor that is in fact an empty shell is meaningless and unwholesome. While defending this high-profile case, Paul Terry must decide what honor means to him and whether he is man enough to uphold it.

Patterson does it again, only better than ever. The story of 2 complex families is so compelling it is impossible to put down. Even more, there is a feeling of loss when it is over......I just wanted more!!! This is a must read.

This is a story so unique that the reader can only sit back and enjoy the ride. The characters who populate the deeply i ntertwined families are completely believable. It is clear the author did his homework about PTSD, the military persona, and the Iraq war. More, he thought very carefully about how to portray all of these sensitive subjects with compassion and intelligence.

This is a legal story with a powerful grasp of legal justice as it exists within the military. Yet, while there is much courtroom drama, the real story exists in the people who populate the pages of this fine book. Capt. Paul Terry is a military lawyer very near the end of his responsibility to the military. He has a fantastic job waiting for him and is realizing the culmination of his many years of hard work. While he has not been able to completely put behind him his Father's suicide, the experience has given him a strong character and a deep commitment to the ethics of the legal field. And then he is ordered to represent Iraqi veteran Lieutenant Brian McCarron, who is accused of killing his commanding officer who is also the husband of a woman who has been the equivalent of an older sister to McCarran. And whose Mother helped raise the McCarran's when their own Mother committed suicide. The plot is tightly woven around the history of the McCarran and Gallagher families. Patterson pulls together these many complex and human threads and ties them into a knot nearly too difficult to untangle. The ending is a surprise at many levels and leaves the reader wanting to know more about the characters who have become so human and real.

He will have to work hard to top this one.

I was tired of RNPs political views in some of his more recent books. With that said, This book is extremely well written. The subject is timely. The characters are found on every military base. As a career military retiree and Vietnam veteran, I again have to question the word HONOR? Thanks Mr Patterson this is on of your best.