Private Ethan Shard is part of the US Army of Occupation in Japan, 1950, knee-deep in the black market, getting rich stealing from the Army and selling to Japanese gangs. All that changes when the North Koreans invade South Korea and overwhelm the defending forces. Ethan Shard is sent to war, along with his partner-in-crime Elliot "Skitter" Skinner, part of a hastily organized force in a desperate attempt to halt the North Korean advance. In their first skirmish, the two men are captured. It will take all of Shard's strength to help survive the brutality of the climate, their captors, and their own natures in this novel of captivity, betrayal, and endurance.
Praise for SHARD:
The Korean War is often called the "forgotten war." SHARD, James R. Benn's exquisitely researched novel, brings that tragic era blazingly to life. After reading it, you will never forget that war, nor the men who fought it, again.
-Martin Limn, author of War Women and other Sergeants Sueo and Bascom novels.
Concise, well-researched, exciting, intensely personal and illuminating. SHARD, Benn's fictional exploration of the Korean War-America's "forgotten war"-is breathtaking in its detail and astounding in its emotional depth and breadth. An electrifying boots-on-the-ground look at the past that is especially pertinent today.
-Stephen Mack Jones, author of the AUGUST SNOW thrillers
Praise for James R. Benn's Billy Boyle WWII series:
Spirited wartime storytelling.
-The New York Times Book Review
As is always the case with Benn's books, the painstaking research is evident, the story crackles with life, and the overlay of fictional characters onto very real historical events is seamless.
-Bookpage
Exceptional . . . Benn has never been better at integrating a whodunit plotline with a realistic depiction of life on or near the battlefield.
-Publisher's Weekly Starred review
Extensive historical and military contextual detail, copious suspense, plenty of action, and the innate politics of power are distinctive traits of this acclaimed World War II-set series.
-Library Journal