Review: Loved Honor
More
by Sharon Wildwind
Published 2012 by Five
Star Publishing/Gale
“Loved Honor More” is the fifth and
final book in the Elizabeth Pepperhawk/Avivah Rosen Vietnam Vets mystery series,
written by retired army nurse Sharon Wildwind.
It takes place in and around Madison County, North Carolina in 1975.
Set immediately following the evacuation
of the American embassy in Saigon, the opening chapter rapidly establishes the
bewildered emotions felt by Vietnam
veterans who survived their tours with deep physical and psychological scars
and now believe it was all in vain.
Pepper’s longtime lover, Darcy, who was
not supposed to be in Vietnam
at all, is missing in the chaos. Complications arise for all the residents of
Pepper’s rural homestead. Perils threaten both Pepper’s job as a nurse and
Avivah’s as a police detective. Both women face personal demons and summon up
reserves of strength when needed.
As the mysteries triggered by Darcy’s
disappearance get tangled up with the lives, loves and families at the
homestead, the author expertly unveils post-Vietnam social tensions between
vets and anti-war protestors, ordinary citizens and the Vietnamese refugees who
are settling in large numbers across the southern USA. This is a much a social history
snapshot of upheaval in the wake of the war as it is a complex mystery of
parentage, honor, and hidden identities.
With each of the previous books the
relationships between the two roommates and their circle of friends deepened,
yet a new reader starting with this book could get the characters straight
pretty quickly and garner enough back story to be going on with. Don’t be
surprised if you find yourself
seeking out the earlier books. The full story of the friends’ post-Vietnam
adjustment is well worth the journey.
Published 2012 by
Five Star Publishing/Gale
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