In the Name of Honor »

Richard North Patterson is the author of The Spire, Exile, and fifteen other bestselling and critically acclaimed novels. Formerly a trial lawyer, he was the SEC liaison to the Watergate special prosecutor and has served on the boards of several Washington advocacy groups. He lives in Martha's Vineyard, San Francisco, and Cabo San Lucas with his wife, Dr. Nancy Clair.

Home from Iraq, a lieutenant kills his commanding officer—was it self-defense or premeditated murder?

Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Patterson (Eclipse) explores the concept of honor—and how men and women can sometimes embody and sometimes blacken this lofty concept—in this riveting legal thriller. When Lt. Brian McCarran shoots and kills his superior officer, Capt. Joe D'Abruzzo, at Fort Bolton in northern Virginia soon after they return from a tour in Iraq, 31-year-old Capt. Paul Terry, of the army's JAG Corps, defends the lieutenant. That the accused is the son of legendary Gen. Anthony McCarran, the current army chief of staff, makes it an especially sensitive court-martial. To complicate matters, Joe was married to Kate Gallagher, the general's goddaughter and lifelong friend of Brian and the McCarran family. Sparks fly after Brian's gorgeous older attorney sister, Meg, insists on working with Paul. As always, Patterson chooses to deal with difficult themes, this time PTSD and the war in Iraq. This is superior genre fiction from a writer at the top of his game. (June)