The General's Daughter
by Nelson DeMille
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Warner Books (New York): 1992. Paperback: 464 pages. ISBN-10: 0-44-636480-0 Suggested retail price: $7.50 (US) Tags: army; CID; made into movie; murder; Mystery; officer Tactical strength: [5/10] |
Compare prices on The General's Daughter by Nelson DeMille at Book Cost
The General's Daughter starts out well: an Army investigator, Paul Brenner, gets pulled from his current case when the military police find the body of base commander's daughter on a rifle range. The daughter, an officer in the psychological operations school at the same post, at first seems the ideal female soldier, but the investigator soon discovers that she led a second life of sexual scandal.
The initial pacing draws you into the ensuing investigation. Demille overexplains the military terminology for my taste, but I can forgive that. As the investigation progresses, Brenner picks up an assistant, and former lover, Cynthia Sunhill. The Brenner-Sunhill relationship, although a subplot, lacks any realism and seems to exist merely as Demille's means to make Brenner seem somewhat human.
By the middle of the book, Brenner and Sunhill have used solid police work and a lot of Brenner's experience from past investigations to develop a lot of information but no real suspects. They take the one true red herring suspect and, although placed at the crime scene and given a possible motive, they dismiss him and are not misled. More solid police work leads them to choose a single suspect. The evidence builds to prove their case, and . . . they're right. Contrary to what my mystery genre protocols tell me should happen, Demille does not produce a surprise ending where the obviously guilty get exonerated and the seemingly innocent get convicted.
I found The General's Daughter an enjoyable, light read that lost its appeal 100 pages before the denouement.
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