Tim Mahoney

In the waning days of the Vietnam war Sgt. Bill Lemmen is attached to a nearly deserted base as an advisor. Lemmen revels in the exoticism of Vietnam, even as he begins to become disillusioned with the war. Knowing he'll soon be gone he schemes to bring his Vietnamese girlfriend Hoa, a former bar girl, and an orphan boy, Van, out with him.

Mahoney writes vivid descriptions of the country, its people, and wartime army culture. The folly of the war and the resultant human loss is a theme show more throughout the book show less

In the early 1930s, while he was police chief of St. Paul, Minnesota, Brown became a secret partner of the infamous Barker gang. He profited from their violent crimes, he protected the gang from raids by the nascent FBI—and while he did all this, the gangsters gunned down cops and citizens in his hometown.