So what do you do when your father is a personality larger than life, a former Secretary of State, and incidentally, one of the most savvy strategists ever to sit at the right hand of any United States president? If you're Brain Haig, you excel at everything you do, from getting accepted to West Point, to graduating from that august institution, to carving out a career as a military strategist in your own right, to...writing novels. Writing novels, that is, that incorporate all of the above as well as a few stories overheard, no doubt, at the dinner table. SECRET SANCTION is the first manifestation of Brian Haig, novelist.
SECRET SANCTION serves as a vehicle for introducing Major Sean Drummond, an Army lawyer who is placed in charge of an investigation into allegations of a mass murder committed by Green Berets serving in a bottomless quagmire known to the rest of the world as Bosnia. Drummond is not a 100 per cent likable character. He's a bit of a smartass, more from the Fletch than the Spenser side of the street and, of course, he's a lawyer. There is more to Drummond than there appears to be at first blush, however. He was not born in an office; he actually spent some time in combat in a top secret division, doing things that armies and countries need to do for a critical and unappreciative nation and that, accordingly, never make the newspapers. Drummond, as a result, has some real insight into how the job of combat is done. He therefore smells "cover-up" when he finds himself being steered toward a conclusion that that the Berets were under fire and acted in self defense. When an obnoxious reporter who has been harassing Drummond is found murdered on the Army base where the investigation is taking place, Drummond has every reason to believe that the murder is tied directly to his investigation. And when the evidence relating to the murder suddenly and inexplicably points to Drummond as the murderer, his priorities suddenly must shift to clearing his own name and saving his own life. At the same time, Drummond finds that his duties to his country and to justice --- whatever that may be --- are suddenly in conflict.
While SECRET SANCTION may be flawed in spots --- the beginning of the book, particularly, drags a bit --- Haig certainly succeeds in telling a compelling story and, almost as importantly, creating a compelling character in the persona of Sean Drummond. Haig has subsequent books planned around Drummond that, hopefully, will give his readers more insight into one of the more unique characters recently introduced into modern mystery fiction.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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