Publisher's Weekly
After 16 years of single-handedly running the Times's Saigon bureau, the last thing veteran newsman Con Edwards needs is brash young cub reporter Jerry Muhl as his assistant. Not only is Jerry ignorant, arrogant and a bad reporter, he also seems to be moving in on Con's girlfriend. Then Jerry is shot and the evidence points to murder. Set around the time of the 1968 climactic Tet offensive mounted by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, this thriller does a good job of re-creating the confusion and corruption of that period. Considering the richness of the background, however, the novel is disappointingly flat. It's difficult to care about the central characters, who are mostly depressed cynics or charlatans, or both. And Eickhoff's irritating overuse of flashbacks impedes the narrative flow.
Library Journal
This first novel is a fast-moving thriller with stock characters and situations. A Saigon-based reporter, Con Edwards, learns his brash young assistant has been murdered. Drifting in and out of scenes with a mysterious Frenchman, a reptilian Vietnamese policeman, and his much younger girlfriend, Con is swept into a search for the truth. His confrontations include a hooker, a black American sergeant, and assorted desperate characters. The intrigues and dangers culminate in the usual rescue. The Vietnam background cannot lift this above the routine. Robert H. Donahugh, Youngstown and Mahoning Cty. P.L., Ohio
After 16 years of single-handedly running the Times's Saigon bureau, the last thing veteran newsman Con Edwards needs is brash young cub reporter Jerry Muhl as his assistant. Not only is Jerry ignorant, arrogant and a bad reporter, he also seems to be moving in on Con's girlfriend. Then Jerry is shot and the evidence points to murder. Set around the time of the 1968 climactic Tet offensive mounted by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, this thriller does a good job of re-creating the confusion and corruption of that period. Considering the richness of the background, however, the novel is disappointingly flat. It's difficult to care about the central characters, who are mostly depressed cynics or charlatans, or both. And Eickhoff's irritating overuse of flashbacks impedes the narrative flow.
Library Journal
This first novel is a fast-moving thriller with stock characters and situations. A Saigon-based reporter, Con Edwards, learns his brash young assistant has been murdered. Drifting in and out of scenes with a mysterious Frenchman, a reptilian Vietnamese policeman, and his much younger girlfriend, Con is swept into a search for the truth. His confrontations include a hooker, a black American sergeant, and assorted desperate characters. The intrigues and dangers culminate in the usual rescue. The Vietnam background cannot lift this above the routine. Robert H. Donahugh, Youngstown and Mahoning Cty. P.L., Ohio
Used availability for Randy Lee Eickhoff's A Hand to Execute