John Katzenbach — Hart's War

Warner 2000 Paperback, 615pp. Life isn't easy when you should have died,' recalls Second Lieutenant Tommy Hart, the navigator whose B-25 was shot out of the sky in 1942. Hart, burdened with guilt as the only surviving member of his crew, becomes just another captive at the fiercely guarded Stalag XIII in Bavaria. But routine comes to a halt with the arrival of a new prisoner:; First Lieutenant Lincoln Scott, a black American airman who instantly becomes the target of contempt of his fellow officers. His most notable adversary is Bincent Bedford, a decorated bomber captain from the Deep South. The hatred between the two men is as volatile as a grenade with the pin withdrawn. When another prisoner is brutally murdered, and all the blood-soaked evidence points to Scott, Hart is tapped to defend the soldier, who steadfastly claims his innocence. Yet from the start, Hart senses he has been chosen merely to make a show of defending the accused in what is presumed to be an open-and-shut case. In a trial rife with racial tension and raw conflict, where the lines between ally and enemy blur, there are those with their own secret motives - and a burning passion for a rush to judgement, no matter the cost. Pages tanning. (ISBN: 9780751529081). Good.