Ready to discover another great book for this 2020? Take a look…

Play the Red Queen by Juris Jurjevics

Genre: Political Thriller
Source: Random Things Tours
Rating: 4/5
Publisher: No Exit Press
Amazon, Hive

About The Book

Vietnam, 1963. A female Viet Cong assassin is trawling the boulevards of Saigon, catching US Army officers off-guard with a single pistol shot, then riding off on the back of a scooter. Although the US military is not officially in combat, sixteen thousand American servicemen are stationed in Vietnam ‘advising’ the military and government. Among them are Ellsworth Miser and Clovis Robeson, two army investigators who have been tasked with tracking down the daring killer.

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My Thoughts

It’s not easy to make a review of this book, not because I didn’t like it, but because the background is so real that it’s difficult not to make any spoiler while talking about the story.
I don’t know much about the Vietnam war or its history, I wasn’t born during the Vietnam war so all the elements told in the book are totally new for me. But this doesn’t make the story less painful or bitter, in a country where the political tension is manifesting everywhere, a young Vietnamese who is killing American military officials can start a war. The story is centered with the two detectives that will have to try to catch the mysterious “Red Queen” while showing the reader a corrupt country full of dark holes and political wars.
Let’s be honest, you will not read this book for the mystery but for the background and realism of the story, because it will make your blood boil of rage to know how the US influenced the instability of the country before and after starting the war.
I really think that this is an amazing read, it’s a little bit difficult at the beginning of the book to enter the story, so many new names and places that are strange, but once you enter the story it’s impossible to stop turning pages. And after finishing it, searching for the story of Vietnam and to know which parts are true, sadly too many, it made me angry and sad of how humanity works. Money is always more important than life, sadly but true.
Ready to “Play The Red Queen”?

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About The Author

Juris Jurjevics (1943-2018) was born in Latvia and grew up in Displaced Persons camps in Germany before emigrating to the United States. He served in Vietnam for fourteen months, nine days, and two hours, his original departure date delayed by the Tet Offensive. He wrote two other novels, Red Flags and The Trudeau Vector, which was published in ten other countries. Publisher and co-founder of Soho Press, Jurjevics worked for decades in the book industry.