October 20, 2008
Noonan's timely debut tells the Pat Tillmanesque tale of a football star turned soldier gunned down in Iraq by friendly fire. Abby, John Stanton's widowed wife, wants answers from the tight-lipped military who insist John was killed by an “insurgent,” and John's parents want him lauded in a hero's burial in Arlington cemetery. Meanwhile, the real killer, a psychopath in John's battalion, comes home and wants to take over John's once-charmed life. Written with great insight into military families and the constant struggle between supporting the troops but not the war, Noonan delivers a fast-paced, character-driven tale with a touch of mystery. Her only misstep is revealing the killer's identity too early—a forgivable sin in this otherwise respectable drama.
December 15, 2008
Being the wife of a soldier is not how Abbyexpected her life to turn out. Her husband, John, was a star football player from Rutgers playing with the Seattle Seahawks when he decided to join the army la Pat Tillman.September 11 deeply impacted John, and now Abby is alone in Fort Lewis, Washington, studying for a masters degree in psychology.She is stunned when she learns of Johns death. Asher mother-in-lawplans a lavish heros funeral, Abby, haunted by visions of John, struggles to deal with the tragedy only to be stymied by the lack of cooperation from the army. Flint, a college friend who is now a reporter embedded with the troops, tells Abbythat Johns demise may have been set up by a member of his platoon who has set his sights on Abby and Johns family. Noonan creates a unique thriller that is antiIraq War andpro-soldier, a novel thatfocuses on the toll war takes onreturning soldiers and civilians whose loved ones wont be coming home.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)