Idol Thoughts by Harvey E. Baker

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MWSA Review

If you enjoy gripping combat fiction in a story that keeps you eagerly turning pages, you'll love Harvey E. Baker's Idol Thoughts. The details of a fictional "undeclared" war in the Laotian jungle, conducted by Khemoi/ Nuoung/ Montagnards and their Special Forces "snake-eating" advisors, are vividly realistic. That's not surprising, because Baker lived and fought in the war he describes. The horrors of life in an NVA prison camp are powerfully depicted as well, giving the lie to the ridiculous slander that the Americans who were captured in the Vietnam war weren't "heroes." The novel's conclusion is a warp-speed-paced version of the movie Three Kings. Besides being a great read, this is also a profoundly honest novel about combat and the men and women who fight for their country.

Review by Tom Behr (April 2019)

Author's Synopsis

Set in the Vietnam War, that involves a 1st Reconnaissance Battalion recon team, led by Marine Lieutenant John Casey, tasked with locating a POW camp. The team is shot down in Laos and is rescued from the NVA by a mountain tribe of Laotian Nuongs led by a Special Forces Green Beret Major. This is a story about the team's survival and the survival of the Green Beret Major as a prisoner of war. This novel explores the Annamite Mountain legend and mystery of the "Sun Shine Buddha." and it highlights the warrior creed, "Leave no man behind" even if the government has written the man off as just another casualty of war.

Book Format(s): Soft cover, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 536