"A remarkable literary feat. Written with verve, dry humor, excellent characterization, and political savvy, this murder mystery is, simultaneously, a searing indictment of Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam and the brutal police state that is his legacy." Erika Holzer, author of Eye for an Eye (a Paramount film); co-author of "Aid and Comfort": Jane Fonda in North Vietnam "Original and inventive. It delivers clever plotting, a surprise ending, and a devastating blow to political correctness." Joshua Muravchik, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute; author most recently of Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism "Riveting and gripping. A great suspense story combined with a broad consideration of the political currents that divided America in the aftermath of the Vietnam war, currents that echo to the America of this very day and time." Ronald Radosh, co-author of The Rosenberg File; author of Commies: A Journey through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left Based equally on lingering controversy and on the latest historical research, this novel will bring you an understanding of the Vietnam war you've never had before. You'll also see its relevance to our newest war, on terrorism. Along the way you'll meet a manipulative sociopath of a type you've never encountered before. In New York City (Greenwich Village, the Upper West Side, Columbia University), also briefly in Vermont, you'll meetother memorable characters: a Pulitzer-winning newspaperwoman, a Gaviscon-chomping detective, a past-hugging activist, a sex-loving photography student, an idiom-twisting phlebotomist, an imagination-toting delivery boy, and more. A humdinger of a plot.