Lt. Roy Banks is questioned about the death of Lt. Jessica Lamoureaux but he doesn't know anything about the murder.

Banks is having an affair with a captain's wife. He's part of a group that likes to party, called The Officers' Club.

Vietnam is over and life in the military is somewhat relaxed. Banks goes around with his buddy, Lt. Jerry Massetto.

Jessica arrives at a party with another officer. Later in the night she attempts to seduce Roy. He tells her that he's involved with someone and declines her advances. This seems to set her off and she develops a fixation on him.

Roy wants nothing to do with Jessica and sees her as manipulative and calculating. She proceeds to sleep with most of the people in Roy's circle of friends.

One night Roy gets a call that Jerry is in serious trouble in Mexico. After Roy is able to extricate Jerry, Jerry tells him that it was Jessie who set him up.

Was this novel interesting? Yes in a dark way. It held my attention and described life as author James Ellroy may have done, dark, but true to life.

The characters seemed caught in their fates and not able to change the direction of their lives. In this aspect, the novel reminded me of the realism movement that moved to the naturalistic movement of the early 20th century, made popular by Frank Norris, Upton Sinclair and Mark Twain. These characters weren't heroic, they didn't evoke sympathy but they did depict a slice of life.

I also applaud the author for his treatment of one character who was one of the early AIDS victims of the 1970s. ( )