The General's Daughter

"As a CID warrant officer, Brenner had to play many roles. "I was a cook and a chemical weapons officer, which, in the army, are the same thing." That sets the tone for this book. I had seen the movie with John Travolta, who did a great job, and this is one of those rarities where the movie and book complement each other very well. The movie captures the spirit of the book.

It's rare that I give a novel 5 stars. I usually reserve that many for important works of non-fiction. I make an exception for this novel. Aside from Brenner's wise-cracking, always enjoyable, the book has an intriguing mystery, a thorough investigation, lots of suspects, and even a bit of romance.

This is one of those books which some of the more puritanical among us show more will complain is unnecessarily graphic. I disagree. The novel is about honor, disgrace, writing past wrongs, a whole panoply of emotional responses and how they affect us. The scenes are incredibly uncomfortable and necessarily so because they pull the reader into the moral quagmire faced by the participants.

I listened to it as an audiobook read by Scott brick who is the perfect narrator for this title. show less

I first read this a year or two after it was published. I remember it being exciting. I also saw the movie. I recall less of that. In his forward the author says the movie was faithful to the book. On its surface it is about the murder of a female soldier who also happens to be the daughter of the general of the camp where she is stationed. It becomes an exploration of family dynamics and has fascinating character development. I had forgotten enough since my first reading I enjoyed the rereading. Perhaps I'll reread it again in another 30 years. Probably won't remember any better than as I'll be pretty old (106.) There is a lot of attention to detail and it features a signature DeMille sarcastic protagonist. Now I have to check if the show more protagonist of some of his more recent work is the same character having become a civilian. show less

This book had a lot of humor mixed in with a lot of serious sadness. The humor was mostly in the interaction between characters, and didn't really detract too much from the serious parts, in my opinion.

I thought the two main characters investigating the crime made a great couple. They did a good job handling a lot of difficult situations, and worked well together.

This was a very good book. I picked it up when I was stuck at a pub waiting for friends with no reading material (strange as that may sound) and said pub has a good lending library. The writing style is clear and concise, and the version I read included a forward by Nelson DeMille about the transition from book to film and his observations of it.

So, to the book review. It starts with a military CID (investigator for the military, like an investigator) who returns to the Fort in south Georgia where he had been a young drafted soldier during the Vietnam War. A young woman has been found who is the general's daughter, and the rape specialist assigned to the case is his former lover.

The whodunit action and wondering about who killed the show more general's daughter, the intrigue within the military base, the working around the military code of conduct, are all very central to the mystery and very well explained. I had seen the movie when it came out, and had forgotten the catalyst that caused Ann to be found in the way she was found; in the movie they show the conversation between father and daughter while it is merely described towards the end of the book.

DeMille's respect for our armed forces while the head-desk of their rules and regs permeates this book and I am glad that a former military man wrote such a book. It could have been a mere denunciation of the military after the Tail Hook scandal, and instead it brings up the idea of extraordinary people, and some ordinary people, living a life of service with arms to their country. show less

Overall I extremely enjoyed "The General's Daughter." The wise-cracking Paul Brenner (DeMille's narrator and main character) keeps the story engaging and humorous, and the pace of the tale keeps the pages flying. I finished the book in just a few days of reading here and there. The little details about military etiquette and custom helped make the setting and the characters feel more authentic, and the plot of the mystery in general was quite good.

But that isn't to say that the book doesn't have it's flaws. The female characters of the book are somewhat stilted and flat, and the re-emerging romance between Brenner and his ex-fling and co-investigator Cynthia Sunhill seems to just kind of... happen. They seem to go straight from show more spitting venom at each other to canoodling lovers without any real conflict resolution. But maybe it just seemed that way because the story went by so quickly, I'm not sure.

DeMille also dropped certain clues like Ann Campbell's missing West Point ring that seemed--to a reader well schooled in the "rules" of a who-done-it mystery--to point to an unexpected conclusion to the mystery. But the missing ring and a couple other things were never actually explained. It's a decidedly realistic touch, but I still felt somehow gypped about it anyway. The book could have been shorter, too. The main characters figured out who the murderer was and proceeded to dick around for the remaining 150 pages of the book--so much so in fact that I was expecting the supposed murderer to be a red herring and for there to be some sort of surprise awaiting me at the end. But alas, no such luck. The murderer was who they figured it to be, and the novel moved on to its expected conclusion. So you could say I was surprised by the lack of a surprise at the end. I guess that's what I get for my silly reader expectations.

But all my complaining aside, I really did enjoy the book. Nelson DeMille is a great story teller, and since his voice, style, and main character are so entertaining, you don't really mind the flaws in the novel. That's why I gave the book a rating of 4 stars. show less

It's a pretty good book. A bit long perhaps (less psychobabble, less focus on the "issues" uncovered perhaps would have made it a little more suspenseful). Oh, and shaving off 100 or so pages of wasted time driving hither and thither and meeting characters several times when their purpose was served on the first visit.

Of course, it's not intended to be an action novel, but rather a police procedural (army police, but still) so it wasn't what I had thought it was when I picked it up as a Reacher replacement.

However, I did enjoy it; there is some snarky humor in it, and it's nicely rude on certain subjects, and the characters feel legitimate. The female characters even seem to be written relatively well (at least they weren't simpering show more idiots). I'll read the next in the series because I think Brenner is a fun character. show less

The General's Daughter is an intense drama set on Fort Hadley of the US Army. Captain Ann Campbell, the daughter of legendary General Joe Campbell, was found murdered, bound hand and foot and staked to the ground at the firing range
in the middle of the night. Paul Brenner, a member of the Army's undercover investigative unit, is assigned to the case. Also, Cynthia Sunhill, a former romantic interest is also assigned because of her expertise in rape cases. As Brenner investigates, he uncovers a sex scandal that encompasses more officers than Brenner wants to count. Even though the forensic evidence is important to finding out who is responsible, it is even more important to Brenner and Sunhill to find out why a captivating, intelligent, show more talented, driven woman such as Ann Campbell would put her career, her family and even her life at such risk. Brenner and Sunhill come face to face with the dark side of the human condition. Another one of DeMille's books you don't want to put down. show less