Word of Honor

By: Nelson DeMille

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 28 hrs

Publisher's summary

He is a good man, a brilliant corporate executive, an honest, handsome family man admired by men and desired by women. But a lifetime ago Ben Tyson was a lieutenant in Vietnam.There the men under his command committed a murderous atrocity -- and together swore never to tell the world what they had done.

Now the press, army justice, and the events he tried to forget have caught up with Ben Tyson. His family, his career, and his personal sense of honor hang in the balance. And only one woman can reveal the truth of his past -- and set him free.

©2009 Nelson DeMille (P)2009 Hachette

Critic reviews

"The flashbacks to Hue, the pre-trial investigation (involving an attractive female major), the court-martial proceedings, the emotions of the principal characters and the soul-sickness wrought by war (which is the story's effective subtext) all are depicted with marvelous vividness." ( Publishers Weekly)

I am surprised how much I liked this book

When I first started listening to this book I didn't really like it. But I kept listening and I am glad I did. Excellent story, very well written.

Wished I had read earlier.

The story may be considered "timeless", tough, and rough good guy takes on the bad guys.
Acknowledgment and appreciation for those having served in the military in the last 50+years and for whom can relate to this story
while remembering their stories were real.
Retired USAF

This one's worth a credit!

With 4 hours of driving a day and 2 accounts I go through a lot of books!
This is great!
Demille does a fantastic job of deconstructing the war through his characters--both here and in other books. He gives us a soul victory if not a military one.
Great Story.
Scott Brick is the absolute best!

Excellent novel, but too woordy

Nelson DeMille always tells a great story, and this book is among his best. I slightly down rate all of Demille's books because they move too slowly and are far too wordy. The abridged versions resolve this issue. Scott Brick always does an outstanding job, bur I prefer the use of a female for female voices (for example, David Baldacci's recent books use a combination of Ron McCardy and Orleagh Cassidy). I wish Brick would find someone like Cassidy for the female dialog. Scott Brick is still my favorite narrator.

Vietnam can still wound

Nelson Demille's books are reliably excellent, but Word of Honor has extra gifts for we who remember the Vietnam Era so well. The story shows how the poison that was the Vietnamese War continues to sicken and destroy, even decades later. Those of us who remember the time will be taken back to those terrible days, when there were no heroes anywhere. Veterans of combat beware -- memories will be triggered and, as Nelson Demille shows us, nobody got out of Vietnam with his soul unscathed.
To people who were born later, this book will give some idea of the terrible questions of that time, and some of the reasons why Vietnam was a war that we lost over and over and over again. Word of Honor explores the limits of the human spirit, both dark and bright.
Outstanding.

wow

awesome book awesome audio book great performance. I love the story. a true must read

Outstanding book

This is the third time reading or listening to this excellent book. I highly recommend it.

Great Listen

I am generally not interested in anything about the Viet Nam war but I love Nelson DeMille and the book was on sale at the time. Much to my surprise I loved every second of it even the slightly predictable ending.

Solid Military Law Story

If you could sum up Word of Honor in three words, what would they be?

Interesting, Patriotic, Slow

If you’ve listened to books by Nelson DeMille before, how does this one compare?

Average. This was only the second time i branched away from the John Corey series, which I absolutely love. This book didn't seem to have quite the same action as those do. I guess its not really supposed to though. It was more of an exploratory book of the differences between civil and martial law. It also slightly delved into the coping mechanisms used by people to maintain a normal life so many years after the Vietnam war.

Which scene was your favorite?

Its a tie between a couple of the courtroom scenes towards the end of the book.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was bursting with patriotism. I didn't cry but i may not have been that far from it. I was reminded once again of how much I appreciate what those who protect our country go through.

Any additional comments?

Scott Brick is one of my favorite readers. However, he read this one with a slightly more depressing tone throughout. It was probably intentional, but I didn't enjoy the performance quite as much as some of his other ones. Still very good though.

Perfect all the way too the end

Loved it. This book was very entertaining and was very unpredictable. I bonded with the characters.