Up Country

by Nelson DeMille

Other authorsKen Howard (Reader)
2005

Status

Available

Collection

Publication

Time Warner Audiobooks (2005), Edition: Abridged

Description

Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:"Much more than a blood-and-guts thriller...An insightful, moving, and sensitive look at what the war did to a country, its people, and its enemies." - Orlando Sentinel Former army homicide investigator Paul Brenner has just gotten used to the early retirement forced on him after the disastrous end of his last case when his old commanding officer asks him to return for one final mission: investigate a murder that took place in wartime Vietnam thirty years before. Brenner reluctantly accepts out of curiosity and loyalty...and maybe a touch of boredom. He won't be bored for long. Back in Vietnam, Brenner meets expatriate Susan Weber, a woman as exotic, sensual, and dangerous as the nation of her voluntary exile. Brenner is plunged into a world of corruption, lethal double cross, and haunted memories-as he's suddenly thrust back into a war that neither he nor his country ever really stopped fighting..… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member donaldgallinger
Up Country is Nelson Demille's suspense thriller set in post-Vietnam. Full of exciting escapes and tense drama, Demille takes the reader on a dangerous adventure through a country teaming with ghosts from previous wars. Superbly researched. Brilliantly paced. A must read for DeMille fans.
LibraryThing member MikeD
Very Good Story about a modern day murder that leads to a visit back to Vietnam for vet and cop Paul Brenner.
LibraryThing member BearSkee
Descriptive tale of current Vietnam and its war torn past.
LibraryThing member jjmiller50fiction
I am a long-time fan of Nelson DeMille and have particularly enjoyed his Paul Brenner character in The General's Daughter. This character well expresses a military code of conduct that I have seen in our armed forces, quite different in some important respects from those held by civilians. Having
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myself served in the Army - in RVN, at the time and some places of Brenner's first tour - this book has a lot of personal resonances. I think other veterans will find this is so for them. There are a few things that sent me to the web to check into. For example: on p 77 he mentions the "red, green and yellow South Vietnamese flag". I don't remember seeing any green; it was yellow with three narrow horizontal red bars. Okay, one typo, no big deal. However, repeatedly, ba muoi ba beer - 33 beer - is described as "ba ba ba" or 333 beer. I looked at a lot of bottles of that stuff up close. I find on the web that it got renamed after the communist takeover, but when I was reading along in the book the 333's kept jarring me. It's like reading about a Texas beer named Two Stars. Anyway: there are very good and quite accurate scenes of Army life during the time of that war and for those with an interest in such, this is a good book.
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LibraryThing member HankIII
This was my very first DeMille book, and I enjoyed it so much I hated to see it end. But since it did, I immediately went on a DeMille spree. It lit the fuse...
LibraryThing member CynDaVaz
This book was probably one of the most compelling representations of Vietnam I've ever been exposed to: the war, reflections on the war, and present-day - at least, when the main story takes place, in '97. What I mean by that is that I developed a deeper understanding of the people, their tenacity,
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and various things that occurred during the war. I haven't changed my opinion that the Communist North should have been crushed like a bug (we could have done it, we just lacked the will - and the South Vietnamese citizens paid the price when we left). DeMille's writing really put me in the situation and I felt like I was there, experiencing what was happening, right along with Paul Brennar. This was probably one of his deepest books yet - and that's saying a lot since I adore his other character so much more (John Corey). The reason I took off a star was because of the length. I felt like it took the same amount of time to listen to it as the length of time in which the story takes place (two weeks). It really didn't take me *that* long, of course, but the writing style, the depth of description, and the plot were so involved that when it was over and done with I felt about as wiped out as Brennar's character did when the story came to a close. On the flip side, if everything hadn't been as well developed as it was, I wouldn't have had such a rich listening experience. Once again, Scott Brick's narration was excellent.
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LibraryThing member 84hornetWD
Powerful novel of Viet Nam vet returning and seeking resolution of legal issues.
LibraryThing member WeeziesBooks
“Up Country” by Nelson DeMille is a new kind of adventure, espionage, suspense book for DeMille. Returning again to Vietnam and the places he was stationed during the Vietnam War, Paul Brenner has been persuaded to investigate and resolve the murder of a soldier during wartime. Starting with a
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long lost letter from a family, following the trail to find the personal effects of the soldier, and the travels across the Vietnam countryside fill the pages of this novel. The book is politically charged with whispers of top level of government being involved in a potential cover up. The characters, especially the Vietnam military leaders (Colonel Mang) and henchmen and country characters that Susan and Paul interact with on their travels were well developed though not always likable. The book gave a good view of the country and it’s different characteristics from the city to the county and up into the hills with seldom visited small villages and huts. This was a good book that I really enjoyed.
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LibraryThing member scubareader
Traveling through Vietnam to relive war memories, and find the witness to a murder.
LibraryThing member gaillamontagne
I love Nelson DeMille's books. This one, although not my favorite, was both educational and intriguing to listen to. The narration of Scott Brick lends to the entertainment value of the of the 28 hours of listening. (over 800 pages)The story is about Paul Brenner, a Vietnam vet in retirement from
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the army's Criminal Investigation Division, who is asked to take on a new assignment of tracking down an eye witness to an officer's death 30 years prior during the Vietnam war. Since Brenner is familiar with Vietnam and has sharp investigative skills he is the "perfect" person to have this assignment, in exchange for a more comfortable pension of course. So off he goes and of course meets a beautiful American business woman who speaks the language and falls for him. As the story unfolds, you find out, as Brenner does, that nothing is as it seems. The travels to find the witness to the death of the officer take Brenner and his lovely "interpreter" Susan, on many dangerous journeys and encounters with very scary Communist "Security " and shocking political secrets. ............The book is long and takes liberties of filling in the reader the history of Vietnam. This went on longer than wanted and found myself wanting to get on with the story. But, I must say, I learned about the effects of Vietnam battles on the minds of those who had to live through it, if indeed they did live. The reader is taken mentally into battle with Brenner as he reminisces/or rather recounts to his partner Susan about what he suppressed from his dark disturbing bloody memories. When your finished with the book, you cant help but have a better understanding of the war vet and for that, I am thankful to Nelson DeMille who himself was a vet as I've read from research.
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LibraryThing member terrygraap
This the second book in the Paul Brenner series by Demille. He only wrote two in the series. The first one was the General Daughter's which was made into a movie with John Travolta playing Paul Brenner. Brenner has retired and brought back into the Army to find about about a murder of a lieutenant
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in the US Army by an Army Captain. It was witnessed by a North Vietnam solder. So, Brenner is leading the investigation with a CIA agent. I recommend this book. It is long but it is worth it.
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LibraryThing member buffalogr
Demille's books always have a thesis, but it's often hard to pick out because the thing is so long. I was expecting 28 hours, but it was only 8.5...just right. I rated it 5* because it was exciting and kept me reading/listening long into the night. Adventure, espionage, suspense--all elements that
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make a book interesting for me. The characters seemed well developed: Mang, the VN "cop"--hated him. Brenner, our hero, always finding a way to solve the problem and Susan, the versatile woman you love to hate. Demille's characters are always wise cracking smart asses--I wonder if he's that way. I don't know why the author likes to describe clothing, though. Fun book, and condensed, just the right length.
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LibraryThing member mtlkch
Good - a little too long, but pretty interesting. Gave me an insight into what it was like in Vietnam.
LibraryThing member zmagic69
This is a tough one to review. I will do it with bullet points.
*The book is easily 300-400 pages too long.
* For the first 400 pages almost nothing related to the main story really happens.
* Much of it reads like a travelogue of the authors visit to Vietnam.
* main character Paul Brenner is
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annoyingly sarcastic, macho, and self deprecating.
* The other main character- Susan Weber is not very believable, and also annoying.
* The ongoing history lesson of first the French and then the American military involvement was excellent.
* The descriptions of places and events was excellent.
Nearly all of the supporting characters are far more interesting.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2005

ISBN

1594830983 / 9781594830983

Barcode

0100181
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