Review: Going-home story found me in tears
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 27, 2012
In Angela S. Stone's novel, Boots on the Ground, two gay police officers from Canada are voluntarily serving in Afghanistan to help construct a civilian police force. The story begins when they become the only survivors of a horrific insurgent IED attack on the convoy in which they are traveling, near the end of the terms of their service.They end up together with a missing-in-action British nurse, Karen, in a labyrinth of caves, as the guests--or captives?--of "friendly" Afghans who are well aware they can't openly oppose the insurgents who control the area.So it's a torturous attempt by Karen, Ash, an Edmonton police officer, and Jason, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer stationed in New Brunswick, to go home. If only Ash and Jason can get their damaged cell phones to work again.And, to up the ante, Ash and Jason are married--but not to each other. Matthew, a nurse, is Ash's husband. David, a fellow RCMP officer, is Jason's.The story provides the reader with a great deal of the lives of Ash and Jason in Canada before they began their adventure together in Afghanistan. It also keeps us in touch with Matthew and David and all their families as Ash and Jason go from missing to presumed dead.Boots on the Ground brings to the reader's attention a matter I hadn't previously focused on. All the military and police authorities involved, as well as the families and friends of Ash and Jason and their husbands, make every effort to mislead the media into believing the two men are straight. If two openly gay men fell into the hands of the insurgents, they would be killed. In fact, Ash and Jason pass themselves off as straight men to the Afghans they live with because those "friendly" Afghans would also kill them if they thought they were gay.To say I became emotionally involved in this story is to state the obvious. Going home, Odysseus and Dorothy would no doubt agree, is one of the most heart-rending stories of them all. But getting home alive and well is no guarantee.And so, quite a few more times than once, this reader found himself in tears.Thank you, Angela, for this novel.(As first reviewed on Rainbow Book Reviews. Please visit the Rainbow Book Reviews website for other reviews that may be of interest.)