by Dee Henderson
Published 2002
This is the third book in Henderson’s “Uncommon Heroes” series. These books are stories that focus on members of various branches of the military. The first two, as a I mentioned, were really more love stories than thrillers. In True Honor, though, the thriller aspect does make a bit of a reappearance.
Henderson started writing this book in 2001, which, as you may recall, was interrupted by the tragedy of 9/11. Henderson felt the necessity (since her stories are usually set in “today”) of restructuring her story to engage this monumental event. Over ten years later, it’s actually quite intriguing to read a book that was written in the throes of the immediate aftermath of 9/11, a reminder of many of the conflicting feelings from that time.
One thing that really stands out is the idea that 9/11 was an act of war, that led to war, and that that war would have clear parameters and a tidy ending. In 2014, we know that that wasn’t the case. The “war on terror” was nothing if not consistently vague. Henderson manages to combat that in her own story by creating a very specific villain for her characters to chase, thus enabling her story (and characters) have closure in the end.
This was as well-written and engaging as most of Henderson’s stories are, especially when I was able to set aside the knowledge of what was going to “happen next” in real life, and simply enjoy the excitement of the fictional story I was reading.
I think the problem with this book was that it was a bit emotional (being written at an emotional time), and that it couldn’t decide if it should be more of a love story, like the first two in the series, or a thriller, like the O’Malley stories.
Overall, this was probably my least favorite of all of Henderson’s books I’ve read to date (although since I’ve thoroughly enjoyed most of them, especially the O’Malley series, that’s really not much of a criticism), but was still a decent read.
The Aroma of Books 