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Laurie King has gained herself an enthusiastic new fan. If all of her books are as well crafted as KEEPING WATCH, I'll be digging through library shelves to find every one.
To start, Ms. King gives us a glimpse into Vietnam veteran Allen Carmichael's life now, then takes us deep into his past to show us what formed the man he has become. The tour of duty the naïve young student signed on for in 1967 changed nearly everything about him. Most of the first 90 pages are devoted to the business of war and the shaping of a soldier, Allen Carmichael in particular. Putting aside my personal feelings about war --- and that war in particular --- I found myself fascinated by the sights, sounds, smells and emotions Ms. King's descriptions evoked. The jungle grew to life on her pages and her hero, questionable though he sometimes might be, was catapulted from a patriotic college kid into an adult with keen abilities no parent wants their child to possess, let alone sharpen. But that's how Allen survived.
Once back Stateside, he tried to fit into a society that held wildly divergent views on its Vietnam veterans. As we know, their homecoming wasn't the grand welcome of a country's bravest and most devoted citizens. In the year he'd been gone, much had changed --- a lot of it inside himself. So when he tried to pick up where he had left off --- with college, with women, with career plans --- he struggled to find relevance in his choices. What Allen finally fell into, while admittedly illegal, was nonetheless noble and had the added benefit of helping him make amends for the horror that was Vietnam.
Allen Carmichael rescues abused women and children. He spent two and a half decades building a network of sensors, helpers, facilitators and foster homes, learning how to gather evidence and when to bring the authorities into the case. Now the time has come for him to retire. His last rescue, that of 12-year-old Jameson Patrick O'Connell, should have been routine. However, it's anything but. He watches Jameson (Jamie) at home, researches his father --- a widower who is quite well off --- and gets a feel for Jamie among his classmates. What Allen sees of Jamie's relationship with his father pushes him to a hasty acceleration of his normal timetable.
Jamie's new life starts out smoothly enough, but then Allen receives a letter from the foster family, which makes the hairs on his neck stand on end. The prickles of doubt send him scurrying to retrace his steps and dig deeper into the O'Connell family background. In the course of his second investigation, he finds that things aren't what they at first appeared. Now, he has to decide whether he has misjudged young Jamie and how the father really fits into the picture. When the elder O'Connell's plane goes missing, Allen wrenches Jamie from his new life and tries to fit the pieces of the puzzle into a sensible scenario. It is relentless action from that point on.
This is a sobering look at abuse --- psychological and physical --- and a quick peek at an ill-managed war. Today, while we are in the midst of another military conflict with less-than-worldwide support, KEEPING WATCH seems particularly timely. It gives us insights into the soldier's world that, hopefully, will help us understand and honor our troops as they come home. More importantly, maybe it will give us a heightened sense of the damage any type of abuse inflicts on people --- children especially --- and help us stamp it out before it ruins more lives. Of course, while gaining these valuable insights, we're treated to an excellent read. Just excellent.
--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers
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