Somebody's Catching Hell

by Peter Smith

Kirkus Reviews calls Somebody's Catching Hell a "sharply written war novel that powerfully evokes the camaraderie and conflict of a Marine headquarters during wartime" and says it is "a must for aficionados of the genre." The book is the story of a team of Marine intelligence personnel during the months leading up to the Tet Offensive of 1968 in South Vietnam. The story carries the team through a steamy summer and monsoon winter as it searches for an illusive enemy on glossy aerial photographs. The novel captures the team's daring hijinks around Da Nang - brazenly exploring the off-limit Asian city, checking out brothels, getting shot at on now-fabled China Beach, executing a bold panty raid during a Bob Hope Show. One Marine, feeling guilty about his desk job, keeps trying to transfer to a combat unit despite warning that he may get what he wishes for. Another becomes involved in a perilous romance with a willowy Vietnamese woman who may also have a Viet Cong lover. During the Tet Offensive the entire team is called upon to shove aside its stereoscopes and race to defend a strategic bridge from attack by a main force enemy battalion. This novel joins Fields of Fire, Matterhorn, and The Things They Carried in the gritty literature of the Vietnam War.

343 pages, Paperback

Published October 31, 2018

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.