World War II. On the island of Mindanao, the Philippines, a man calling himself "General" Fertig has set himself up as a guerrilla leader to harass the Japanese. Army records show that the only officer named Fertig in the Philippines is a reserve lieutenant colonel of the Corps of Engineers, reported MIA on Luzon. Still, the reports filtering out are interesting, and it's Marine lieutenant Ken McCoy's mission to sneak behind the lines and find out if he's for real. With him is a motley group put together as a compromise between the warring factions of Douglas MacArthur and the OSS chief Bill Donovan. Together, these men will steal into the heart of enemy territoy and there, amid firefights and jungle camps, encounter more than they had bargained for. Before they're done, each will undergo a test of his own personal mettle - with results that will surprise even the most hardened of them. FROM THE CRITICS Publishers Weekly Griffin's seventh novel in The Corps series (after Close Combat) continues the author's breezy look at the Marine Corps during WWII. Here, he uses guerrilla action behind the lines in the Philippines as foreground to tell the behind-the-lines tale of the power struggle among Marine General Fleming Pickering, General Douglas MacArthur and Bill Donovan of the fledgling OSS, all of whom are galvanized into action by a radio message from a self-proclaimed general named Wendell Fertig, who has established himself as a guerrilla leader against the Japanese. As far as the Marines are concerned, once the message is verified, a team of men with supplies will be sent in to evacuate any sick or wounded and evaluate Fertig as a potential leader. Complicating matters, however, are MacArthur's public declaration that guerrilla activity on the Philippines is impossible, and therefore nonexistent, and Bill Donovan's desire to get the operation under OSS control.

Focusing on a variety of characters involved in the proposed mission, Griffin tells an absorbing story with his usual attention to dialogue rather than description, relying frequently on his favored device of moving the plot along through copies of memos, radio messages and telegrams. The boy's club aura of Griffin's primarily male world, where everything-even death-seems clear, sunny, bright and uncomplicated, is in full force here; and that should please his fans just fine. Library Journal In Griffin's latest, a bunch of mismatched World War II grunts search for a missing colonel who may be launching guerrilla raids on Japan. Sounds like a cross between The Guns of Navarone and Apocalypse Now. BookList - George Cohen Griffin's twenty-second novel is the seventh in his Marine Corps series. It is set on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines during World War II. The hero is Lieutenant (and later captain) Ken McCoy, a tough marine who speaks fluent Chinese and Japanese. It's his job to lead a group behind enemy lines to check on General Fertig, who has set himself up as a guerrilla leader to harass the Japanese. Griffin mixes fact and fiction, weaving into the plot such World War II personalities as General Douglas MacArthur, Admiral Chester Nimitz, and Colonel Bill Donovan (head of OSS). As always for Griffin, the dialogue is filled with military jargon, and the action is all derring-do. One would think that readers would tire of the genre, but as long as there are wars, there will be war novels and popular war novelists. AudioFile - Susan B. Stavropoulos Griffin's novels about the Marine Corps are known to his readers as absorbing recreations of times of battle. He has an instinct for authenticity, both in situation and in dialogue.

Hill's breakneck delivery contrasts with the snail's pace that so often characterizes war activity. In this case, bickering between MacArthur and the OSS almost scuttles a mission in Mindanao during WWII. Switching expertly from the documentary style Griffin uses in the narrative to individual characterizations, Hill manages to keep potential confusion at bay. S.B.S.

United  States.  Marine  Corps  --  Fiction,  United  States  --  History,  Military  --  20th,  Century  --  Fiction,  World  War,  1939-1945  --  Fiction,  Historical  Fiction,  War  Stories