The Sanction

by William W. Johnstone

A very highly trained soldier who is forced to leave Vietnam, quits the army and returns to civilian life after only knowing war and loneliness. He falls in love for the first time with a married woman. Will this be salvation or will it break him?

Genres: Horror, Thriller

383 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

William W. Johnstone is the #1 bestselling Western writer in America and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of hundreds of books, with over 50 million copies sold. Born in southern Missouri, he was raised with strong moral and family values by his minister father, and tutored by his schoolteacher mother. He left school at fifteen to work in a carnival and then as a deputy sheriff before serving in the army. He went on to become known as "the Greatest Western writer of the 21st Century." Visit him online at WilliamJohnstone.net.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

While Johnstone is known for his westerns and of course, his B grade gonzo horror, it seems he also tried his hand at romance, and The Sanction is the result. Romance is not really my genre by any means, but this seems like it scraped the bottom of the barrel in any genre. Our main protagonist, Jim Prince, grew up an orphan, rejected from (or ran away from) numerous foster homes until at 15, he got a forged birth certificate and joined the army. After being a hero in the Korean war, his age was found out and he was forced to leave the services; a few years later, he was back and eventually became an 'Iceman', an elite killer for targets the US wanted taken out. Jim does not like killing, but boy is he good at it.

After 13 years in various South East Asian conflicts, he is forced out once again; rather than teach or accept some cushy desk job, he resigns. Six months later, he is in California trying his hand as an author and hits the big time. He is so lonely though, even if women are throwing their panties at him left and right. Cursing the 'lace wearing' liberal congress and 'professional civilians who could never understand his sacrifices for his and their country, he seems destined to write his books alone in his isolated house on the coast.

Johnstone then introduces another main character, one 'Sunshine', a spoiled brat from an uber-rich family who found college too boring and just wants to find a hubby to take care of her. She finds Troy, another rich asshole, but their marriage is the pits; Troy is a closet homosexual but needs a wife for corporate dinner parties, etc. Sunshine lives just a few miles down the beach from Jim, however, and obviously, they are going to meet and fall in love. Johnstone gives us all kinds of tedious crap about the meaning of love here, what makes for a great marriage and all that. Jim and Sunshine seem made for each other, but poor Sunshine just cannot make up her mind. No one in her family ever got a divorce and at time she still kinda likes him. So, Sunshine keeps Jim on a string for a long time

Meanwhile, some head honchos in the army are keeping tabs on Jim, worried he is either going to pass on some classified stuff about his army exploits or just gonna lose it. Either way, they are ready to take him out. Can Sunshine make up her mind? Will she and Jim live happily ever after, or will this end in a tragedy. Gosh, the suspense! That, and the numerous barbs at 'liberals' and civilians who just do not appreciate the military hint at some of his later horror stuff, but overall, not a very strong outing at all. I like Johnstone's gonzo horror to some degree, but his romance? Glad he decided to focus on Westerns. 1.5 lame stars, only rounding up as I finished this and to be honest, it is just so bad it was hard to stop!

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Sanction is one of Johnstone's most obscure books and was one of his earliest ones. I guess it's a suspense/thriller but seems to want to be something of a romance, too. It's about a man named James Edward Prince, an orphan who gets a forged birth certificate so he can join the army when he's fifteen years old. He goes to Vietnam and is put into special forces and black ops training and becomes an accomplished assassin. He's forced to retire, becomes a famous best-selling novelist, and has an affair with a married woman (which is okay, because the woman's husband plays for the other team), and the army decides it's time to retire him permanently... Lots of action/adventure, but it would have been a much better book if it had had a hundred fewer pages of anti-liberal and homophobic philosophy.

[Mikepottz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jim an orphan, loved being alone in the woods, he became a natural woodsman, able to silently stalk. He would not let people close to him. He joined the army underage, killed people but his age was discovered and he was discharged. Fast forward legal age and he is back, all the military courses, a trained killer. After a decade doing wet work in Asia he comes back stateside, but his memories, his killings, his lack of societal understandings are lacking. He becomes a successful writer, women throw themselves at him, he has everything but love. He craves it, demands it, it becomes his lifetime endeavor to find and experience it. He finds a married woman, troubled, changeable, they discover love and a catastrophic hurricane is going to wipe lives from the face of the earth. A very different book from Johnstone. Not bonkers, straight forward easily digestible look into troubled lives and the search for love. A side of Johnstone that is quite touching. Not what I expected from this Zebra title.