Mission Octagon

this is a great read,some of the material is too real to be fiction.in a time of moral degradation this book sends a strong message for doing what is right.

I just finished Mission Octagon having been hooked to the point of reading 'til the wee hours each night to find out how Smitty was going to get out of his latest scrape. Ken Smith has written a spellbinder, which is all the more admirable for his first venture. He modestly disclaims being an author, but he is certainly a master storyteller. His novel sheds great insight into the whole quagmire of the Viet Nam experience; the misdirected military operations, the confused politics and especially the poor grunts who paid such a terrible price, not only on the front lines but on their unwelcome and troublesome lives trying to readjust back into an ungrateful society. Throughout this tale he delivers a powerful message of a young man continually trying to measure up to his father's challenge to be man enough to always do the right thing in the face of adversity, which he encounters in the extreme. This story could only have been written from the unique perspective of someone who has lived it. He has my gratitude for sharing his real life experiences via this gripping work of factual fiction. Bob Coffey

"Mission Octagon was a page turner - suspensefully thrilling with the heart of an Eagle Scout, a real gem in the world of spy stories. I could tell it came from somewhere deep in your soul and that you lived through many of the incidents. Kudos to you on a job well done! Grade A+" -- Ginger Baxter - Atlanta reader, August 2005

On the surface, a stunning military espionage novel that will keep the reader on the edge of the seat. But underneath, a stirring tribute to the credo of `do the right thing rather than do what's right', with a central character that is a paragon of incorruptible personnel integrity, and uncompromising moral conviction. A living statement on American ideology and social commentary not seen in a novel since Ayn Rand's the Fountainhead ... welcome back Howard Roark!!

Mission Octagon is the suspenseful story of a man on a revenge mission against three others - "The person who did the dirty work, the person who told him to do it, and the person who told them where to look." Yet this seemingly simple personal mandate will draw him through a morass of deadly worlds, from the gangland streets of Miami to the killing fields of Vietnam to an all-black college in Georgia. The trail of secrets leads him afoul of murder and to the highest levels of the United States government. He must choose between fulfilling his personal revenge and the greater good of a righteous cause. Gripping to the last page, Mission Octagon weaves its cruel story with hidden revelations and moral quandaries to give the reader cold pause.