The Silent Men [Mass Market Paperback]

Richard Dickinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 2003

Jackson Monroe is the finest American sniper in Vietnam's treacherous Mekong Delta. The Viet Cong call him "Black Ghost." Dispatched for a classified "illegal" mission on the Cambodia border, Monroe succeeds beyond expectation, only to be abandoned behind enemy lines and left for dead by his superior officers. Suddenly, the hunter becomes the hunted when Monroe discovers that a VC assassin-an expert marksman like himself-is intent on eliminating the legendary Black Ghost before he compromises the North Vietnamese Army's carefully planned Tet Offensive. With superb writing, brilliantly realized characters, and nonstop action, The Silent Men introduces readers to a new hero in the first of a series of thrilling adventures.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Air Force veteran Dickinson debuts with one of the most authentic Vietnam War novels since Tim O'Brien. Marksmen Tobias Patterson and Jackson Monroe are the only two blacks among their secret squad of "silent men"-snipers who prowl the jungle in pairs to pick off enemy targets. The two men would not normally be friends, but their pairing in the jungle and segregation from their colleagues bonds them. Dickinson captures the grit and intensity of the war by getting inside the soldiers' heads, without politicizing or moralizing. Monroe and Patterson are assigned the difficult (and unauthorized) mission of taking out their Vietcong counterpart, a shadowy man named Dac. As nondescript as the Americans are distinctive, Dac is known as the Black Ghost for his ability to camouflage himself. With Dac in his sights, Patterson blows the mission by instead shooting an important Vietcong general named Cho. Dac responds instantly, wounding Monroe. Patterson is forced to flee, leaving Monroe to fend for himself in the jungle. The officers who engineered the mission invent an implausible story for the killing of General Cho, which reporter Dan Brady threatens to expose. The story loses momentum when it expands to include the perspectives of Brady, Dac and others, but the riveting depiction of Monroe's struggle to survive and reach safety augurs well for future installments of this proposed series.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Dickinson, a former air force pilot, has crafted a Vietnam novel that is at once familiar and uncommon. Jackson Monroe is a sniper operating near the Vietnam-Cambodia border; he's sent into Cambodia to find a notorious enemy sniper and knock off a top North Vietnamese general, but something goes wrong, and he's stranded behind enemy lines, presumed dead. Can he make his way back to safe territory before the enemy sniper finds him? This is a very grisly, graphic novel, a down-and-dirty war story told with attention to the smallest details. Many readers will be reminded immediately of Stephen Hunter's Bob the Nailer series, perhaps the only other novels to have focused in such detail on Vietnam snipers in combat. The author's prose style is not quite as smooth as Hunter's, but he has a definite flair for writing about war, and his story is page-turningly exciting. This is the first of a projected series of Jackson Monroe novels. Bob the Nailer fans should eagerly await them. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Mass Market (December 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142003395
• ISBN-13: 978-0142003398
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,303,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST YET ABOUT VIET WAR, October 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Silent Men (Hardcover)

Dickinson captures the back stories, the covert ops, deceit and filthiness of this nearly-forgotten ugly war in the way that no other writer has done.His descriptions of soldiers and civilians under fire are better than Celine, better than Ian MacEwan in "Atonement". Dickinson's heroes are killers and the killing is a form of sanctioned ritual. We meet an anti-hero, an unforgettable black sniper(!) who Dickinson, according to the blurb, plans to do more with in a subsequent novel. This reader would have torn the library apart to get it but, alas, it doesn't exist yet. Soon? When?

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Realistic - Amazing Sniper Scenes - Great First Novel, October 2, 2002

By 

JC "JC" (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Silent Men (Hardcover)

I enjoy reading books set during the Vietnam War, so when I saw that a novel by a new author was released on the subject, I eagerly snatched it up. I'm glad I did. Richard Dickinson has written a novel that portreys its characters and settings so realistically that it is difficult to come up with a comparison. This book is like Marine Sniper by Charles Henderson crossed with Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter. It's that good. Do yourself a favor and read it - you won't be disappointed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, waiting for the next book, June 4, 2004

By 

Mary Lee "idea_rat" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Silent Men (Mass Market Paperback)

I just happened to pick up this book at a gas station in the middle of nowhere when I was on a long road trip, & I'm glad I did, because The Silent Men is excellent. Richard H. Dickinson's vividly detailed descriptions of the snipers' precision and the filthy chaos of war and his interesting cast of characters held my interest from beginning to end.