THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602080635
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BILL ROACH
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
BEHIND THE LINES
W.E.B. GRIFFIN
G.P. Putnam's Sons. 384 pp. $23.95.
W.E.B. Griffin first struck gold with his eight-book series, Brotherhood of War. He also has a five-book series, Badge of Honor, about Philadelphia policemen. Behind the Lines, set in the Philippines, is the seventh novel in his World War II series.
Griffin's latest introduces Wendell Fertig, an Army reserve engineer lieutenant colonel who starts to organize a guerrilla movement on Mindanaeo, the Philippines, as Bataan and Corregidor fall. Marines from previous books in the series also appear - Lt. Ken McCoy, gunnery sergeant Ernest Zimmerman, staff sergeant Steve Koffler, and Capt. R.B. Macklin, something of a villain and a coward. And the irreverent Brig. Gen. Fleming Pickering and his action-oriented entourage return.
Pickering sets up an operation to funnel supplies to Fertig, who has declared himself a general as he organizes opposition to Japanese rule in the Philippines. In this, he runs afoul of Col. Bill Donovan and his OSS spy operations. Pickering ends up with a clandestine supply operation, saddled with OSS ``help.''
The novel is a good, lively read as thrillers go, and it has an unexpected, ironic twist at the end. by CNB