by Brian Haig
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| List Price: | $24.95 |
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| Lowest New Price: | $6.04 |
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Product Description
JAG lawyer Sean Drummond has gotten himself in way over his head-with a case that challenges his deepest fears and a co-counselor who challenges just about everything else. Assigned to South Korea as an advocate for a gay officer accused of brutally killing the son of a South Korean war hero, Drummond is teamed up with an old law-school nemesis. Katherine Carson is a curvy, liberal, William Kunstler-like attorney with a reputation for manipulating the media on behalf of her mostly gay clients. Drummond is as distraught to be working with a woman who knows how to push all his buttons as he is to be defending this client. However, it's just this lack of political correctness that makes him the one man the CIA can trust with its disturbing secrets, and Drummond quickly learns that what appears to be an open-and-shut case is really just the top layer of a deep conspiracy.
Amazon.com Review
Sean Drummond is back in a provocative mystery featuring the clever, irreverent JAG lawyer introduced in Brian Haig's debut thriller (Secret Sanction). Ordered to Seoul to assist a civilian lawyer representing an army captain charged with raping and murdering the son of the South Korean defense minister, Sean is chagrined to discover that he's second-chairing his old law school rival, the brilliant, beautiful Katherine Carlson, who's famous for challenging the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Katherine insists that Thomas Whitehall was framed by the Army because of his sexual orientation; while Drummond agrees that Whitehall might be the victim of a conspiracy, he thinks it has more to do with espionage than homophobia. By the time he uncovers a plot to destabilize the alliance between the U.S. and South Korea and rid the region of American troops, he's been threatened, bugged, and embarrassed--and that's by his own co-counsel, whose motives and intentions he's entirely misread! While Katherine is almost a parody of a legal provocateur, Sean comes across as an engaging fellow with a ready wit, a well-honed legal mind, and a willingness to confront his own prejudices that wins the reader's admiration. So does Haig, (incidentally, the son of Colonel Alexander "I'm in charge here" Haig) whose skillful pacing and narrative gifts mark him as a writer worth watching. --Jane Adams
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Average Customer Review:
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 A riveting book full of twists and great characters. A must read legal thriller!, 2008-07-15
In Mortal Allies, Brian Haig's second book featuring JAG lawyer Sean Drummond, Drummond gets thrust in the middle of a vicious murder committed in Korea that threatens to destroy the alliance between the two countries. An upstanding Korean man, son of Korea's minister of defense, is found murdered. Three American soldiers are implicated and the crime looks to be related to homosexuality. Two of the suspects turn on Thomas Whitehall, and Whitehall is soon charged with murder. Whitehall is a homosexual, and his lawyer from the Organization of Gay Military Membersis named Katherine Carlson. Carlson finished first in her class at Georgetown Law, just above Drummond, and they've been bitter rivals since then. Carlson needs a military rep on the case and she chooses Drummond.
This book is part of a series but you would have no problem reading this book on its own. It is fast paced and Drummond's first person narration will keep you entertained. This book plunges right into the gays in the military issue. While I imagine Haig has his own opinions on the issue, he does a good job of giving Drummond the right wing stance and Katherine Carlson the left wing stance. At the center of the novel is the quest for the truth, and when Drummond and Carlson aren't at each other's throat, they're navigating the ins and outs of the Korean culture and what could possibly be a large conspiracy.
I can't begin to write a concise summary of the plot. What starts out as a simple preparation of a defense of Thomas Whitehall soon grows into something much larger. Mortal Allies is also full of engaging characters whose relationships and connections change and fluctuate througout the novel. I found myself turning the pages just to read more of the character interactions, as well as the plot.
Haig puts a human face on the issue of homosexuals in the military. Drummond is a politically incorrect Army lifer neanderthal and Katherine Carlson is a hippie, ultra liberal gay-rights attorney. Haig never uses is characters to preach or try and figure out the right thing to do. He just has lots of fun, and so do his characters. Haig has found a way to explore the tough issues without painting the U.S. military in a negative light, which is a tough thing to do. Drummond and his first person narration is in your face and quite entertaining and humorous, but could be a turn off for some. Haig has quickly shot up to the top of my favorite authors list.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
The Major and the Ice Maiden, 2008-01-19
This is another volume in the series about Major Sean Drummond, an army lawyer whose smart aleck attitude usually places him one wisecrack short of a court martial. In this story he is paired up with a civilian lawyer, a smart lady who can be best described as a finely sculptured ice statue. Don't be taken in by her frigid demeanor, however, as her speech often seems to be ejected from a flame thrower. Do Katherine Carlson and Major Drummond get along? Does a pit bull get along with a bobcat?
Four gay guys are found in a room. One of them is dead, and one of the four, an officer is thought to be the murderer. It's kind of like an old British locked room mystery. How can the accused possibly be innocent? Naturally things are not always as they seem. Both of our lawyers plough along trying to find out what really happened. Major Drummond manages to insult not only his superiors, but also diplomats, U.S. and Korean. The reader begins to feels certain that by page 417 the Major will be standing in front of a firing squad. As time goes by, however, the case becomes more and more sinister, and reaches the point of becoming an international incident.
This is a fun story, as are all of Brian Haig's novels. Even if you haven't served time in the military you'll chuckle as Sean Drummond brings a general or two to the point of apoplexy. The case eventually gets resolved, but, you ask, does the ice maiden thaw and fall into the open arms of our handsome major? Maybe, maybe not.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Fantastic Military/Espionage Thriller, 2007-08-15
This is the second book in the Sean Drummond series by Brian Haig and is so far my favorite. Since I picked the book up and flipped to the first page, I could not put it down. Some of the parts were pretty predictable but still a great read no less.
JAG lawyer Sean Drummond is caught in another mind blowing case that has almost no chance of winning. The loops he's throw through and the events that occur make for a nice thriller. The book adds the right amount of comedy, drama and suspense to keep you flipping the pages. I will look forward to reading the next books in the series.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 A definite page-turner, 2007-08-07
Army lawyer Sean Drummond is taken from his vacation to South Korea where he has to team up with a civilian lawyer to defend an army captain accused of raping and murdering a Korean man. The case deals also with the differences in American culture compared to Korean culture, the army's policy of "don't ask, don't tell" when it comes to homosexuality and all of the political ramifications. Drummond knows his co-counsel having gone to law school with her and fought with her all four years.
There are lots of twists and turns in Mortal Allies and it moves along at a brisk pace. The writing style includes quite a bit of sarcastic and self-deprecating humor from the lead character, Drummond, which I wasn't prepared for, but when I got used to the style, I enjoyed it. The story is interesting and is different in setting and subject matter from other thrillers I've read. It's a little overplotted and ridiculous in places but what thriller isn't. Mortal Allies is definitely a page-turner.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
An exciting new series that deals with the military justice system!, 2007-05-15
A friend at work gave me a copy of Mortal Allies by Brian Haig, and it sat on my bookshelf for almost two years before I finally read it. Though I'd glanced through the novel a few times, I wasn't really interested in a story that involved the military justice system. It simply didn't grab my interest. Then, out of boredom, I picked it up and read a few pages and actually laughed out loud at the sarcastic wit of its lead character, Major Sean Drummond, JAG Corps attorney for the military. I immediately liked him and suddenly wanted to know more about the story. Mortal Allies is nearly five hundred pages in length, but I managed to read it in three days, which is a clear sign of how much I enjoyed the novel.
Major Sean Drummond is called in off of his vacation in Bermuda to the Osan Air Base in South Korea to help represent an Army officer, Captain Thomas Whitehall, who's been accused, along with two enlisted Americans, of raping and murdering a Korean enlisted man. The Korean soldier, however, just happens to be the son of the Korean Minister of Defense and the American government is anxious to see these three men tried and convicted. Drummond will be working with a former law school classmate, Katherine Carlson, who he has a tempestuous relationship with. Everything looks cut and dry at first to Drummond. Whitehall was caught red-handed with the body of his Korean lover beside him. Evidence shows that the young man was strangled to death with Whitehall's Army belt while being raped. Drummond is not only a smart lawyer, but also a former infantryman who served in a Black Opts unit for five years, until he was wounded and had had to change careers. Drummond has learned to trust his instincts over the years; and right now, they're telling him that Whitehall is innocent. The question is if Whitehall didn't kill the Korean, then who did and why? Drummond will have to depend on all of his military training to stay alive as he's beaten, stabbed, shot, and almost blown up while attempting to prove Whitehall's innocence. Even worse, the fate of America's involvement with South Korean lies in the crucial balance as the intelligent services of both countries become active in the case. Drummond will not only have to fight for his own life, but for the life of Thomas Whitehall, a man he has grown to admire and respect.
Mortal Allies is the second novel in the "Sean Drummond" series, and boy is it a keeper. Though conveying a lot of information on the military judicial system, the pace is fast and the action is well placed to keep the reader on his toes. The author, Brian Haig, is the son of Alexander Haig, and a retired Army officer who knows the "ins" and "outs" of the military. He writes from personal experience and makes you feel as if you're actually walking the back streets of Seoul, South Korea with all of the unique smells and sounds one might expect in a foreign country. Mr. Haig also delves into the political problems that the United States has had with South Korea, and how many of the Korean people want to see our bases closed and our troops returned home so that they can have their country back. All in all, Mortal Allies is an excellent novel that gives you an insight look at the military and its justice system and how certain prejudices are still rampant. I checked on Amazon, and it appears that there are four or five more books in this series. I'm eager to get into the rest of them and to find out how Sean Drummond is making out with his razor-sharp wit and intrinsic sense of loyalty to those in need of justice. This is a series that you can easily become addicted to.
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