East of Mandalay

Rating:
Summary: East of Mandalay
Review: East of Mandalay is a rare book. It combines an exciting, fast moving adventure with well drawn characters. It combines both masculine and feminine adventure, heroism, and toughness with sensitive insight into the male and female psyches of the characters. Our hero, Michael Cameron, a burnt out helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War sets out to rescue his love, Kathleen Howard from slavery in Burma. However, Kathleen (with her baby) has already embarked on her own escape attempt. Clauser does much better than Ludlum or Cussler would do with similar material. Yes, the adventure is gripping and full of suspense, but the people are real people; they come to life. Clauser has clearly researched every aspect of her material. Her descriptions are so wonderful that you can smell the villages and marketplaces in Burma, Laos, and Vietnam. I couldn't put the book down, and when I was done I felt that my best friend had suddenly departed.

Rating:
Summary: East of Mandalay
Review: East of Mandalay is a rare book. It combines an exciting, fast moving adventure with well drawn characters. It combines both masculine and feminine adventure, heroism, and toughness with sensitive insight into the male and female psyches of the characters. Our hero, Michael Cameron, a burnt out helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War sets out to rescue his love, Kathleen Howard from slavery in Burma. However, Kathleen (with her baby) has already embarked on her own escape attempt. Clauser does much better than Ludlum or Cussler would do with similar material. Yes, the adventure is gripping and full of suspense, but the people are real people; they come to life. Clauser has clearly researched every aspect of her material. Her descriptions are so wonderful that you can smell the villages and marketplaces in Burma, Laos, and Vietnam. I couldn't put the book down, and when I was done I felt that my best friend had suddenly departed.

Rating:
Summary: East of Mandalay: A terrific book
Review: EAST OF MANDALAY is an absolutely terrific book. Its narrative is tremendously exciting, and the genre almost defies description: it is a hard-hitting adventure story with a military man at its center, and yet at the same time it's a beautiful and complex romance with a historical background. The Southeast Asia locale during the Vietnam War era is exotic and enticing, and the characters are all three-dimensional and fascinating. If you have any interest in American political/military history or any interest in strong women protagonists, you will love EAST OF MANDALAY.

Rating:
Summary: East of Mandalay: A terrific book
Review: EAST OF MANDALAY is an absolutely terrific book. Its narrative is tremendously exciting, and the genre almost defies description: it is a hard-hitting adventure story with a military man at its center, and yet at the same time it's a beautiful and complex romance with a historical background. The Southeast Asia locale during the Vietnam War era is exotic and enticing, and the characters are all three-dimensional and fascinating. If you have any interest in American political/military history or any interest in strong women protagonists, you will love EAST OF MANDALAY.

Rating:
Summary: Gonna be a "Clauser Classic"
Review: East of Mandalay was a great read for me. My father told me many stories of his Burma Peacocks in the CBI [China, India, Burma theatre] during WWII. . . and Ms. Clauser brought me back to that beautiful part of the world. Set within this beautiful locale are conflicts. People at war. With themselves and with each other. The author's characters are human and their lives complex. The daily questions for which they must find answers are of great consequence. Like yours and mine? There is a strong and sympathetic main character. Michael Cameron is a war-weary hotshot helicopter pilot in Vietman drawn into a secret, foolhardy, mission to Burma - for Kathleen. But, Aha! not just any girl, a true love. Michael lost his missionary-bred Kathleen Howard four years ago to a life in remote Upper Burma. When Michael receives a plea from Kathleen's brother . . . informing him that she is now held captive by a Shan drug lord . . . "the plot thickens" . . . Michael gets himself and his Crew Chief Hanny posted to Laos . . . where they plan to fly into Burma, going AWOL if need be, to rescue Kathleen . . . but the covert war in Laos and the perils of the opium trade get in the way.Meanwhile, Kathleen's own risky attempt to escape puts everything in jeopardy, including her life and the life of her baby. That's about as much as I would want anyone to tell me about this story. I don't want to spoil any of the wonderful twists and turns. I highly recommend Suzanne Clauser's latest offering, "East of Mandalay".

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Summary: Suspense, Romance, Authority
Review: Suzanne Clauser knows her stuff. Here is Southeast Asia close-up -- the land, the people, the sensory details. Here is the Vietnam war as experienced by Michael Cameron, a young man with no love at all for battle who has discovered nonetheless that he's "good at it." Here is the thrill of mastery over a Loach helicopter: with Michael and his friend Hanny as navigator at the controls. Here is the strong heart and canny mind of a young woman on the run for life, her own and the life of her infant son. This is a story of desperate searching with terrible consequences for the least slip. At the center: here is love and hope.