Mortal Allies
Sean Drummond is back in a provocative mystery featuring the clever,  irreverent JAG lawyer introduced in Brian Haig's debut thriller (Secret Sanction). Ordered to  Seoul to assist a civilian lawyer representing an army captain charged with  raping and murdering the son of the South Korean defense minister, Sean is  chagrined to discover that he's second-chairing his old law school rival, the  brilliant, beautiful Katherine Carlson, who's famous for challenging the  military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Katherine insists that Thomas  Whitehall was framed by the Army because of his sexual orientation; while  Drummond agrees that Whitehall might be the victim of a conspiracy, he thinks it  has more to do with espionage than homophobia. By the time he uncovers a plot to  destabilize the alliance between the U.S. and South Korea and rid the region of  American troops, he's been threatened, bugged, and embarrassed--and that's by  his own co-counsel, whose motives and intentions he's entirely misread! While  Katherine is almost a parody of a legal provocateur, Sean comes across as an  engaging fellow with a ready wit, a well-honed legal mind, and a willingness to  confront his own prejudices that wins the reader's admiration. So does Haig,  (incidentally, the son of Colonel Alexander "I'm in charge here" Haig) whose  skillful pacing and narrative gifts mark him as a writer worth watching.--Jane Adams