The Renegade Patriot

Twenty years after the inglorious end of the CIA’s secret war in Laos, former helicopter gunship pilot, Andrew Harris, returns to Udon, Thailand on a mission long deferred. He’s come to lay flowers at the crypt of Fon Wattana, his secret, war-time mistress, and to pay final respects to her husband, Captain Nate O’Riley, Andrew’s good friend, fellow pilot, and cuckold back in the day. Both Fon and Nate had been gunned down under mysterious circumstances during the final, chaotic days of the war. Andrew’s mission is disrupted when he meets up with John Pike, his former lead pilot, hero, mentor, and father figure, now drunk and half mad, holed up in the sticks outside of Udon. In Pike’s jungle hideaway the two men sip whisky and rehash old times. Pike’s photographic memory calls up events and fills in details about the war that Andrew had long forgotten or willfully suppressed, including a nagging suspicion that Pike might have had a hand in that double murder. Andrew proceeds to covertly question Pike, but his interrogation spins out of control and he finds himself trapped by his past and fearing for his life. The Renegade Patriot is a murder mystery, a war novel, and a coming-of-age story about hero worship, personal corruption, and atonement–a flashback to our past that is relevant to these times.