Keeping Watch

I'm not going to review this novel - others have already done so. Some folks thought it was too long, others didn't care for the Vietnam introduction. But I was there - Vietnam in 1970/71 - and can attest from personal experience that Ms. King captures the heat, the sensations, the fear...and the Green to perfection. And the intro is vital to understanding the demons that drive Allen Carmichael. So, even if you think you don't like 'war stories', stick with it...please! You'll be rewarded with a fascinating character study and a complex psychological thriller. You may also come to understand why so many of those who fought in Vietnam took years to put the pieces of their life together (and why some never could) and how Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi 'incidents' occur 30 years later. Ms. King continues to amaze and challenge. . .

I started out reading the Mary Russel novels of Laurie King and then progressed to Kate Matinelli. I read Keeping Watch before Justice Hall. This is new ground for the author but very fertile territory. It is hard to put a label on this book (i.e., mystery, fiction). It has substantive action and totally believable dialogue, no make believe like her other titles, which are very good. There is a craftsman-like leitmotif weaving of sub-plots and topics here, all obviously well-researched. King's titles all seem to have an accurate sense of history and geography and this is no exception. Its messages are real. It was eye-opening to me about children's advocacy issues and how victims repress and feel powerful emotions simultaneously. It was startling in its portrayal of the horrors of war (Vietnam). And it was powerful in depicting the depression of the protagonist and his struggle to achieve stability. It was moralistic, with good conquering evil.The battle was never an easy one though and the author leads the reader to explore commitment, involvement, care and instruction of children, and loyalty to family and friends among other issues. Its relationships between men and women are on solid footing, too, as women are portrayed as role models in difficult situations. Not perfect types, but very human, with defined needs and depth of character who bring much to their associations. This is not just a good read. It is terrific. King won an Edgar Prize a few years ago for best mystery by a new writer. I don't know again if this qualifies as a mystery. If it does, it will compete for another Edgar as Best Mystery of the Year. Also, it makes King an attractive candidate for a Lifetime Achievement Edgar. She writes with the literacy of a Susan George. This book reminds me of Cold Mountain in many ways, too. It will compete for lots of awards. It is a serious novel by an author just finding her prime. I recommend it enthusiastically. I do caution readers that this book is candid about psychological hurt and physical pain. Not everyone will want to finish reading it.

KEEPING WATCH is a remarkable achievement. Laurie King intertwines a first-rate story of war in Vietnam with a contemporary suspense story about rescuing a twelve-year old from his abusive father. Both stories gain harmonic richness from their conjunction. This reader was utterly enmeshed in the complexity of thier gradual unfolding.Allen Carmichael returns from Vietnam haunted by terrible memories and nightmares. After seven years of wandering in a wilerness of alcohol, memory gaps, and petty crime he rurns home to Washinton's San Juan Islands to begin reconstructing himself. He spends the next two decades rescuing abused women and children for an underground network run by a woman named Alice. He has finally decided to retire and marry his lover, Rae Newborn (central figure of King's last novel FOLLY), but Alice persuades him to take one last case. It turns out to be the most challenging in his career, threatening the network and the lives of Allen and Jamie -- the boy he is trying to save.King has never written a book with a male protagonist before. The most vivd sections of the book are Carmichael's flashbacks of Vietnam. King credits "the stories" of Vietnam vets in helping her accomplish this feat. It is a measure of King's skill that those scenes have the flavor of first-hand observation. The suspense story has enough twists and turns to satisfy the most jaded mystery reader. Highly recommended.

I'm a big fan of Laurie R. King's "Kate Martinelli" series; and bought this book to see what else she can write. I'd not read "Folly" (although I plan to) and I found that you can treat this book about sometimes-hero Allen Carmichael as a stand alone read. And what a read! King, through a series of writing and conversations, and, I believe, a voyage to the jungles (the "green") of Viet Nam, manages to evoke the presence of her ex-GI, Allen, and recreate the war there. Flashbacks syncopate the story of today's Allen, locked in a battle with an angry, violent father over possession of his abused, 12-year old son. Allen's part of a network of a type of "underground railroad" for abused children. His destiny is tied up in his memories of rage and terror from his days in Vietnam, and what's worse, his return to "civilization", as a despised Vietnam vet. King has gotten into the deepest visceral memories of the soldiers who served there, and the analogy between Allen's former battles and his current urban battles gives the reader a strong link to his motivation. "Six months of rage and shame flooded up through...his gut and seized his heart and his mind; six months of confusion and hatred and humiliation, long weeks of gut-shrinking terror and soul-withering frustrtion slammed together in the cleansing red emotion of savagery given a clear target". ....what terrors Allen has faced then and now are interspersed with the third/first person account of Jamie, a boy shattered by his sensitivity and knowledge of the emotional cripple that is his father. You'll be caught up in the tense thrill of today's story, and reluctantly moved back to the jungles to see the paradox of Jamie's struggles and Allen's own.A book you won't soon forget -- the evocative "Keeping Watch" - bravo for Laurie R. King!

When, on page 10 I suddenly found myself deep inside the war in Vietnam, a continent away from the suspense novel I thought I'd just sat down to read, I grew wary, thumbed ahead, found 86 pages of description of what it was like to be a Marine in Vietnam ahead of me and almost threw the book across the room. If there'd been anything good on TV I might have. I put the book aside several times, finally just decided to plug away at it and I'm so glad I did. By the time the story finally left Vietnam I found I wouldn't have minded staying longer. But finally the plot kicks in and a riveting one it is, too. Allen Carmichael, whom King readers met previously as Rae's lover in "Folly" (another terrific read), stars in this one and by midway through his story you begin to realize why that long author's detour through 'Nam was necessary. Allen has come to the end of a long and dangerous career as a man who kidnaps abused children (and sometimes their mothers along with them) and finds them sanctuary. Here he's about to embark on his last case, where nothing is quite what it seems. What a joy and relief to find my favorite mystery/suspense writer in top form again after the disappointing "Justice Hall." King fans, I think you're going to really really like this one.