A Shutter in War

by Mark McCarrell

Reed Donaldson is a Photographer for the Los Angeles Times. Bored with his current position, the paper offers him an opportunity to cover war correspondence in Afghanistan. Sick of the never ending street violence in Los Angeles of drugs and gangs, he decides to take a three month contract in Afghanistan as a combat photographer. Unprepared for what war is like; he gets an education of death and destruction in the deserts of Afghanistan as he travels on convoys and missions with the soldiers.

As a person unaffected by typical street violence in the United States, he slowly changes his personal attitude towards life and the human race as he begins to witness the afflictions and suffering that war brings. Unlucky in love and shy of women, his life starts to change once he becomes wounded in battle, where he meets the beautiful Nurse Krystal Mitchell and falls in love. Now torn between choosing to stay with Krystal in Afghanistan, or go back home to safety. “War is Hell” as the saying goes, and Reed can honestly confirm, it is.

168 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 17, 2013

About the author

A veteran contractor of Iraq and Afghanistan. I've always been a writer since grade school, just never acted upon it as I was a musician on the road for 20 years. Since self publishing hit the scene I became highly interested, since getting published is an impossibility. I now write constantly and am quite intrigued by the popularity of Erotica writing now, besides my regular adventure novels. Under a pen name? You bet. Maybe someday I'll come out of the closet when the other famous authors reveal their names.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reed Donaldson is a photojournalist with the LA Times, covering street crime. He is bored with that assignment and when the newspaper offers him the chance to cover the war in Afghanistan he jumps at the chance. To me this was an interesting perspective on the global troubles of recent years. I found the plot well thought out, and the characters were totally believeable. I did wish that some better editing had been carried out as it was a bit disjointed in places, and also the use of acronyms with no explanation of their meaning. A worthwhile read as it deals with modern warfare from a different angle