Richard Hoyt: Vivienne

From the Publisher
February, 1968 - the Chinese New Year. In the Tet offensive, Vietcong ambush American units across South Vietnam. Back home, the fires of antiwar protest rage. Jim Quint, a reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, goes to cover a luncheon speech by the American commander, General William C. Westmoreland. In the parking lot, Quint meets Vivienne, the beautiful young Vietnamese wife of Colonel Del Lambert, scion of a wealthy Hawaiian family and Westmoreland's chief of intelligence in Vietnam.

Vivienne has a secret that Lambert is desperate to know, and tells Quinn that if he can coax the secret from Vivienne, Lambert will give Quinn his beautiful wife. A dangerous, passionate struggle ensues between soldier and war critic, a fight for Vivienne that mirrors the war in Vietnam.

Enamored in a love triangle, Quint, Lambert, and Vivienne are driven by the elemental forces of desire, hate, rage, torment, sacrifice, tragedy, and ultimately, hope.

Richard Hoyt: Vivienne. Forge, ISBN: 0812578627 (November, 2001), 285 p., $6.99