The Price of Honor Hardcover - 1999

From the publisher

With a golden name and a platinum future, U.S. Army Special Forces Captain Sandy Caine was born to be a soldier. The latest in an eight-generation West Point line of Caine men to serve duty, honor, country, Sandy's character has been hammered out on an almost flawless anvil of military tradition. But a ghost from the past -- the mystery behind his dead father's cowardice in Vietnam -- obsesses him, poisoning his faith in the Army and himself. Alex Caine dishonored the long gray line years ago in Vietnam, and Sandy carries around the disgrace in his blood every time he salutes a senior officer with a Vietnam Service Medal pinned to his chest. Now, pulling tours of duty in one global hot spot after another, it occurs to Sandy that he knows a dozen ways to kill a man for every way he knows of being one.

The brooding warrior intrigues Abigail Mancini, an ambitious, talented reporter for the Washington Chronicle. While sharing a burning rooftop with Sandy and his A-team, Abbie files a mesmerizing, you-are-there account of a dubious suicide mission ordered by the commander in chief. With instant Beltway credibility suddenly attached to her byline, she's drawn further into Sandy's violent universe when both end up living dangerously in Bosnia. The more time they spend together, the more Sandy's obsession becomes Abbie's.

It's not long before Sandy's relentless questioning coupled with Abbie's skills as an investigative journalist threaten those keeping the Caine secrets. But every lead they dig up about this legacy of deception and betrayed honor points in a different direction. A war-hero senator with blood on his hands, ticket-punching Pentagon officers hiding behind stars and goldstripes, a Deep South weapons manufacturer with billions of billing at stake, and even Abbie's ruthless boss all are desperately concerned with keeping the lid on what really happened to Alex Caine in Vietnam's Central Highlands.

Sandy and Abbie learn that in time of war, the first casualty is the truth. And that unearthing it thirty years later will prove deadly.