Author Description

August 1970. New York newspaper reporter Joe Clifford is directed to produce a feature story on five soldiers who were freed on charges of murdering Vietnamese civilians and discharged from the army without court-martial. The owner of the newspaper is convinced they were guilty and that the violence involved in the incident will manifest itself in their lives as civilians. Joe does not agree. His first subject is Vilas Comstone, whose parents live near the small village of Blackjack in the red sand hills of western Oklahoma. Joe arrives in Blackjack on the same day as Comstone, but before he can begin work on the story, he is drawn into a murder investigation in which Comstone becomes the prime suspect.