Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner
Fulton County Blues
Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Ruth Birmingham
Class/Genre: Mystery Vietnam or Vietnam Vet
Berkley, Jan 1999, $5.99, 288 pp.
Sunny Childs, a private detective at Atlanta's Peachtree Investigations, knows nothing about her father who died in Vietnam when she was eight years old. Her mother has always been reticent on the subject. Hoping for closure, Sunny travels to the Vietnam Memorial Wall, only to learn that her father's name is conspicuously absent.
As Sunny begins her quest to find out what really happened, a friend who served with her father in Nam, allegedly kills himself. The deceased's widow swears that he would never have committed such an act of self destruction because he shied away from guns ever since he left the service. Sunny obtains a list of former GIs who served with her father. She soon realizes that the troops are hiding a several decades old incident that involves the CIA, drug trafficking, and covert operations. If Sunny persists on obtaining the entire truth, she will have to confront the modern day tentacles of the CIA, who have reasons to keep her father's story erased.
The war in Nam has been over for more than two decades, but for those who served and those anxiously waiting for news of their loved ones, the anger, resentment, and confusion remain as powerful as it was in the late sixties-early seventies. Many individuals, even some to young to understand what was happening at that time, still struggle with coping from the horror and ultimate uselessness of the effort. With dignity and respect, FULTON COUNTY BLUES looks inside the head of an indirect victim of the war. Readers will agree that Ruth Birmingham has written a compassionate, empathic, and realistic journey.
Harriet Klausner
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner
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