Customer Reviews

In the Shadow of Death

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This work by new author Littlejohn is in every way satisfying. A challenging plot, characters with honest depth, and a bang-up twist ending. Almost impossible to put down. Highly recommended.

"In the Shadow of Death" is a well-told intriguing story of two men from opposite sides of the brutal conflict in the Pacific Front. The nightmare that the Americans and Filipinos suffered at the hands of the Japanese is told from the viewpoint of both the Americans and the Japanese via Jack Collins and Kenji Tanaka. The novel reminded me of the of Elie Wiesel's "Night" "All Quite on the Western Front" by Erich Remarque. The Americans become numb to the horror they must helplessly endure. Some of the Japanese are brutal, others compassionate, but most are just trying to survive a hellish situation that they neither wanted nor expected. The events surrounding the Bataan Death March are solidly based on historical fact and the places mentioned in the story are real. Littlejohn weaves fiction and fact together to develop sympathy for the main characters, Jack and Kenji, who are well developed and believable. I was happy that both survived the war and returned to civilian life at the close of the first part of the novel.

The second part occurs some forty years after the end of the war and the story resumes with the death of Jack's wife. The emotional trauma of her death triggers a smoldering desire for revenge that Jack had harbored for decades. He travels to the East and revisits the places where the Bataan Death March took place. He does not gain closure and travels to Japan where he seeks his revenge for the atrocities that he and his friends endured. Kenji who had ironically saved Jack's life when Jack had been a prisoner stops Jack's revenge.

The book is a quick read and left me hoping that another one is in the works.

THE SHADOW OF DEATH was a quick read with accurate locale information from an author who had obviously spent time in the two countries central to a good story.