Category:VietnamWar,Action/Adventure, Suspense/Thriller
Tour Dates: March 2014
Available in: Print and ebook 384 Pages
In this suspense thriller set during the Vietnam War, Victor Ortega is a rogue CIA agent, and he needs someone to blame for his crimes. Recon Marine Ethan Card is the perfect patsy. As a teen, Ethan ran with a Chicago street gang, and he has a criminal record. He also has a secret lover, Tuyen, who is half Vietnamese and half French.
Tuyen is a stunning, beautiful Viet Cong resistance fighter.
Since she was a young child, Tuyen has lived under the control of her brutal, older, sexually abusive half-brother, Giap, a ruthless and powerful Viet Cong leader, who has forced her to kill Americans in battle or die if she refuses.
When Ethan discovers he is going to be court marshaled for weapons he did not sell to the Viet Cong and Tuyen will be arrested and end up in an infamous South Vietnamese prison, where she will be tortured and raped, he hijacks a U.S. Army helicopter and flees with Tuyen across Southeast Asia while struggling to prove his innocence.
Victor Ortega and Giap—working together with the support of an unwitting American general—will stop at nothing to catch the two, and the hunt is on.
The star-crossed lovers travel across Laos to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat; to Bangkok, Thailand, and then to Burma’s Golden Triangle where Ethan and Tuyen face a ruthless drug lord and his gang.
In the rainforests of Burma, Ethan also discovers Ortega and Giap have set in motion a massive assault on his Marine unit’s remote base in South Vietnam with the goal of killing the man he admires most, Colonel Edward Price, who is the only one who believes Ethan is innocent.
Ethan must risk everything to save Price and his fellow Marines. Will he succeed?
In this suspense thriller we follow Ethan Card, a Recon Marine fighting during the Vietnam war as he tries to vindicate himself, after he is wrongfully accused of selling weapons to the enemy by rogue CIA agent Victor Ortega. His past makes him the perfect mark and his affair with Tuyen a Vietnam resistance fighter is icing on the cake. Ethan hijacks a plane and we follow him as he is stalked by Ortega,Tuyen's half brother Giap and his band of mercenaries as they try to eliminate him as a problem.
This book is action driven and extremely graphic in its violence. Giap and Ortega are methodical and deadly, both of them have a long reach, with many contacts through out the region. It is both intriguing and disturbing the depth of hatred and possession Giap feels towards his half sister, as he fantasizes about rapping her and torturing her lover. Ortega is driven by violence and power and will stop at nothing to bring down Ethan card no matter how many men it cost him.
The story started and ran full out, with action and intrigue but I found myself distracted and a little bored thorough the middle while Ethan was recovering. I wasn't impressed with the addition of Angel to the scene what started off as sweet quickly became disturbing when he develops a sexual relationship with a girl of no more than 14. I was completely disgusted by that and it almost turned me off from the rest of the book. The action however quickly picks back up and continues until the very last moments when our hero saves the girl he loves.
I will be honest while there are parts of this book that I enjoyed there were parts that I had a hard time getting past. The author did a great job in his writing, given the nature of the subject I don't think the the violence was gratuitous given the subject matter but I did question some of the roles of woman placed in this book as either someone to bed, or someone to exercise power over and torture. As an American I would have though Ethan would have been more morally apposed to bedding a 14 yr old child as it would be considered statutory rape in his country. It was hard to swallow.
I would not recommend this book to anyone under the age of 18 yrs because of the graphic violence and sex throughout.
I gave this book a 3.5 out of 5 star rating.
I was gifted a copy of Running with the Enemy in exchange for an unbiased review as part of the Running with The enemy tour
As a special gift to his readers Lloyd Lofthouse is offering the kindle version of his book on Amazon for $0.99 for the duration of the book tour. Click on the link below to purchase your copy.
http://www.amazon.com/Running-Enemy-Lloyd-Lofthouse/dp/0986032816