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Digger
As a soldier in Vietnam, John Fortunato fought in the crushing darkness of the tunnels of Cu Chi, from which the Vietcong launched their deadliest operations. Back home in Elk River, Illinois, he secretly re-created those deadly tunnels. Partly a memorial, partly a kind of exorcism, they now lie hidden beneath the town's peaceful streets.
But that peace shatters when Fortunato witnesses the brutal sidewalk shooting of an innocent victim. The vicious crime is only the first assault by a man who will wage a full-scale battle to control Elk River. And on the front line is John Fortunato, whose secret tunnels will provide the battleground for his own war. As his enemy is about to learn, when this veteran warrior goes down, he's just beginning to fight.
But that peace shatters when Fortunato witnesses the brutal sidewalk shooting of an innocent victim. The vicious crime is only the first assault by a man who will wage a full-scale battle to control Elk River. And on the front line is John Fortunato, whose secret tunnels will provide the battleground for his own war. As his enemy is about to learn, when this veteran warrior goes down, he's just beginning to fight.
512 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 4, 1997
129 people are currently reading
169 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Flynn
69 books197 followersJoseph Flynn has been published both traditionally — Signet Books, Bantam Books and Variance Publishing — and through his own imprint, Stray Dog Press, Inc. Both major media reviews and reader reviews have praised his work. Booklist said, “Flynn is an excellent storyteller.” The Chicago Tribune said, “Flynn [is] a master of high-octane plotting.” The most repeated reader comment is: Write faster, we want more.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
September 28, 2017
A story about a town torn apart by a strike at the major employer, a dispute which turns very violent very quickly, a town with a network of tunnels below it, created and maintained by 3 tunnel rats who fought in Vietnam. The story moves at pace but for me lacks some narrative structure so only 3 stars for me.
June 15, 2015
Very good early effort from Joseph Flynn, written before he started making political statements of his novels.
The tale involves three Vietnam War tunnel rats who have recreated the tunnels of Chu Chi in their Illinois hometown. Enter an unscrupulous business owner trying to bust the union and you have the makings of a good thriller.
The tale involves three Vietnam War tunnel rats who have recreated the tunnels of Chu Chi in their Illinois hometown. Enter an unscrupulous business owner trying to bust the union and you have the makings of a good thriller.
January 12, 2021
A Vietnam vet deals with his PTSD by digging tunnels all over town. When the local union goes on strike, the business owner resorts to murder. The vet witnesses it, and the shooting begins.
I wonder if Stallone read this before he made Last Blood.
I wonder if Stallone read this before he made Last Blood.
January 5, 2022
A really exciting book transporting the tunnels of Chu-Chi to the Midwest creating the setting for a struggle between a union and a corrupt boss. Excellent plotting and memorable characters made this a thrilling read.
May 25, 2016
Ugh. I really don't know what to think about this book. It started out like it was going to be exciting and well-plotted, but now that I've finished I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be a lazy love story with a neat underground, Vietnam-style theme. None of the other plot elements gets wrapped up. We never find out what happens with the little boy whose father doesn't love him, or with the sheriff who dies (apparently; I assumed he was still holding on until the book explicitly told us he was dead, twenty pages after it happened), and, most egregiously, we never find out what happened with the union strike that the book was so wrapped up in.
As a personal thing, it irritated me how many boring Anglo-Saxon names we had to deal with. The few that aren't AS are either Vietnamese or the main character's god-awful family name: Fortunato. I hated the name, I hated that his church-building grandfather was named Michaelangelo (of course he was.), and I really really really hated the fact that every single Vietnam buddy of his called him Johnny Fortune. Seriously. Laaaaaaame.
Then the book fails the Bechdel test spectacularly. The one female character with any kind of role (beyond moving the plot forward) is Jill, the labor lawyer brought in at the start of the book and (of course) Johnny Fortune's love interest. She gives off a facade of competency but spends most of the book having to be rescued from burning buildings, ex-cop kidnappers, evil corporate douchebags who beat the crap out of her and get sexually aroused by doing so, dropping dead for no apparent reason, a hospital where they want her to stay and get well (OF FREAKING COURSE SHE HAS TO ESCAPE), and, most spectacularly of all, the actual tunnels that serve as the book's main gimmick. Get this (spoilers): a woman who insisted her boyfriend bust her out of the hospital in spite of the fact that she couldn't walk straight and had no real reason to leave other than stupid genre predictability, goes down into BF's tunnel system (despite having already admitted being afraid of the dark, having no idea how to get around in them, not knowing where the booby traps or Vietnamese terrorists inside the thing are located, and nothing special to do when she gets down there). She does shoot the leader of the Vietnamese boys sent down to kill dear Johnny Fortune, but all the others were dead, the stereotypical Communist leader has no reason to still want J.F. dead, and the man who ordered this talk is both dead (which she doesn't know) and has no more credibility or reason to stay (which she does). So that was pointless. Her only real purpose in the scene is to interrupt the final standoff in the book and get J.F. shot and killed. Good job, woman. She then proceeds to start a tradition of lighting a candle for him every day "for the rest of her life." Eyeball roll implied.
I just can't describe how useless this character is. The only other important female characters are Alice Wills, who keeps discovering corpses and is largely just a less-than-tertiary-character given the role of comic relief, and Rayette, the lover of one of the 'nam buddies who has been committing all kinds of murders and who never makes an appearance in the book. Well, she briefly yells over the phone, but because of all the useless story threads tangled over this mess I assumed she was one of the many adulterous lovers of J.F.'s murdered uncle (who was also useless in his own special way).
There's no chemistry between any of the characters. The only reason we're supposed to believe that Jill and Johnny are a couple is the way they refer to each other as soulmates. I suppose they did sleep together, but we're only told that they did and are left to assume that the sex was good because that's how these kinds of pseudomystery novels roll. The villain has no reason for his actions beyond being a royal dick (he has a page and a half backstory about his father working for an Irish gangster, but I don't buy it). Johnny Fortune himself is just a big blank slate. He's of course heroic, and of course a torrid lover (I assume), but apart from the facts that he's a veteran, kind of psychic (but not really; it never plays into the plot except to lamely explain why he's so good in the tunnels), and is a famous photographer (which is brought up once when he takes a picture of union scabs beating the union organizer and once when a goon buys his books from the local bookstore and then promptly forgotten). What kind of music does he like? Is he funny? Does he have any hobbies beyond tunnel-building and being unintentionally angsty without even having emotions? I have no idea.
The book has no idea what it wants to be. On the one hand it wants to be the love story of J.F. and what's her name, and on the other it wants to be the chronicle of corruption in labor unions (although, as mentioned, it never bothers to wrap that up once our favorite bland 'Nam hero is dead. Who cares about that black man with the bland AngloSaxon name? Johnny Fortune is dead). It really wants to be the story of how Vietnam veterans couldn't adjust to life after the war, so of the three main veterans we have Johnny, who regrets losing his buddy in the VietCong tunnels, Darien (token black man), who remembers being a prisoner of war uncomfortably, and Gil (token Hispanic), who is mildly psychopathic and misses being the awesome hero of the tunnels back in Nam and wants to be there again. But the book isn't willing to put in the effort to show this. All it's willing to do is TELL us these characters are suffering, let that little boy with the unresolved subplot finally figure out what happened to Johnny's disappeared friend, and give us really bad, meaningless lines like "War isn't funny... It's killing and dying, shattered lives and broken hearts." Now you know, folks, war isn't funny. Thank you, book, that was a thing I hadn't known before.
Well, as you can tell from my rambling on for so long, this book hurt my feelings. It couldn't have been awesome. It was plotted fairly well (apart from the flood that supposedly motivates the final confrontation; a character offhandedly asks if they thought about floods at the start of the book, Johnny says it's fine, the point gets forgotten for four hundred pages, and then a random thunderstorm that wasn't even built up but was apparently hurricane force in the middle of Illinois turns up. It floods off part of the tunnels, even though that doesn't seem to hinder anyone's movement, and the characters who stay above ground barely seem to get wet). It had a darn awesome gimmick in those tunnels, but this book just dropped the ball and then kept kicking it until it fell in a randomly flooded river and floated away. Stupid book. Shouldn't even have been five hundred pages anyway.
As a personal thing, it irritated me how many boring Anglo-Saxon names we had to deal with. The few that aren't AS are either Vietnamese or the main character's god-awful family name: Fortunato. I hated the name, I hated that his church-building grandfather was named Michaelangelo (of course he was.), and I really really really hated the fact that every single Vietnam buddy of his called him Johnny Fortune. Seriously. Laaaaaaame.
Then the book fails the Bechdel test spectacularly. The one female character with any kind of role (beyond moving the plot forward) is Jill, the labor lawyer brought in at the start of the book and (of course) Johnny Fortune's love interest. She gives off a facade of competency but spends most of the book having to be rescued from burning buildings, ex-cop kidnappers, evil corporate douchebags who beat the crap out of her and get sexually aroused by doing so, dropping dead for no apparent reason, a hospital where they want her to stay and get well (OF FREAKING COURSE SHE HAS TO ESCAPE), and, most spectacularly of all, the actual tunnels that serve as the book's main gimmick. Get this (spoilers): a woman who insisted her boyfriend bust her out of the hospital in spite of the fact that she couldn't walk straight and had no real reason to leave other than stupid genre predictability, goes down into BF's tunnel system (despite having already admitted being afraid of the dark, having no idea how to get around in them, not knowing where the booby traps or Vietnamese terrorists inside the thing are located, and nothing special to do when she gets down there). She does shoot the leader of the Vietnamese boys sent down to kill dear Johnny Fortune, but all the others were dead, the stereotypical Communist leader has no reason to still want J.F. dead, and the man who ordered this talk is both dead (which she doesn't know) and has no more credibility or reason to stay (which she does). So that was pointless. Her only real purpose in the scene is to interrupt the final standoff in the book and get J.F. shot and killed. Good job, woman. She then proceeds to start a tradition of lighting a candle for him every day "for the rest of her life." Eyeball roll implied.
I just can't describe how useless this character is. The only other important female characters are Alice Wills, who keeps discovering corpses and is largely just a less-than-tertiary-character given the role of comic relief, and Rayette, the lover of one of the 'nam buddies who has been committing all kinds of murders and who never makes an appearance in the book. Well, she briefly yells over the phone, but because of all the useless story threads tangled over this mess I assumed she was one of the many adulterous lovers of J.F.'s murdered uncle (who was also useless in his own special way).
There's no chemistry between any of the characters. The only reason we're supposed to believe that Jill and Johnny are a couple is the way they refer to each other as soulmates. I suppose they did sleep together, but we're only told that they did and are left to assume that the sex was good because that's how these kinds of pseudomystery novels roll. The villain has no reason for his actions beyond being a royal dick (he has a page and a half backstory about his father working for an Irish gangster, but I don't buy it). Johnny Fortune himself is just a big blank slate. He's of course heroic, and of course a torrid lover (I assume), but apart from the facts that he's a veteran, kind of psychic (but not really; it never plays into the plot except to lamely explain why he's so good in the tunnels), and is a famous photographer (which is brought up once when he takes a picture of union scabs beating the union organizer and once when a goon buys his books from the local bookstore and then promptly forgotten). What kind of music does he like? Is he funny? Does he have any hobbies beyond tunnel-building and being unintentionally angsty without even having emotions? I have no idea.
The book has no idea what it wants to be. On the one hand it wants to be the love story of J.F. and what's her name, and on the other it wants to be the chronicle of corruption in labor unions (although, as mentioned, it never bothers to wrap that up once our favorite bland 'Nam hero is dead. Who cares about that black man with the bland AngloSaxon name? Johnny Fortune is dead). It really wants to be the story of how Vietnam veterans couldn't adjust to life after the war, so of the three main veterans we have Johnny, who regrets losing his buddy in the VietCong tunnels, Darien (token black man), who remembers being a prisoner of war uncomfortably, and Gil (token Hispanic), who is mildly psychopathic and misses being the awesome hero of the tunnels back in Nam and wants to be there again. But the book isn't willing to put in the effort to show this. All it's willing to do is TELL us these characters are suffering, let that little boy with the unresolved subplot finally figure out what happened to Johnny's disappeared friend, and give us really bad, meaningless lines like "War isn't funny... It's killing and dying, shattered lives and broken hearts." Now you know, folks, war isn't funny. Thank you, book, that was a thing I hadn't known before.
Well, as you can tell from my rambling on for so long, this book hurt my feelings. It couldn't have been awesome. It was plotted fairly well (apart from the flood that supposedly motivates the final confrontation; a character offhandedly asks if they thought about floods at the start of the book, Johnny says it's fine, the point gets forgotten for four hundred pages, and then a random thunderstorm that wasn't even built up but was apparently hurricane force in the middle of Illinois turns up. It floods off part of the tunnels, even though that doesn't seem to hinder anyone's movement, and the characters who stay above ground barely seem to get wet). It had a darn awesome gimmick in those tunnels, but this book just dropped the ball and then kept kicking it until it fell in a randomly flooded river and floated away. Stupid book. Shouldn't even have been five hundred pages anyway.
January 27, 2024
MUCH BETTER Ending, Than The Beginning — Don’t Give Up on this Story
The first half or so of this book only exists in order to introduce the characters … a reasonable effort, you might think — except there was WAY TOO MUCH written on background, NOT ENOUGH on substance. Consequently, The Reader has to slog through a bunch of crap and make a concerted effort for how to keep one person straight from another.
There were definitely good guys and bad guys (with gals thrown into both categories). But the whole plot really doesn’t start to grab The Reader until the middle of the book — and truthfully, it was all I could do to convince myself to get that far and finally be rescued by the story getting more meat on its bones.
But, HANG IN THERE!!! Don’t skip the beginning, as difficult as it might be to maintain interest. The 2nd half of the book will then keep you going, and fulfill your desires for a good tale.
The first half or so of this book only exists in order to introduce the characters … a reasonable effort, you might think — except there was WAY TOO MUCH written on background, NOT ENOUGH on substance. Consequently, The Reader has to slog through a bunch of crap and make a concerted effort for how to keep one person straight from another.
There were definitely good guys and bad guys (with gals thrown into both categories). But the whole plot really doesn’t start to grab The Reader until the middle of the book — and truthfully, it was all I could do to convince myself to get that far and finally be rescued by the story getting more meat on its bones.
But, HANG IN THERE!!! Don’t skip the beginning, as difficult as it might be to maintain interest. The 2nd half of the book will then keep you going, and fulfill your desires for a good tale.
April 6, 2022
Interesting on so many levels.
The book has so many stories going at the same time by each character. Every character has a story line that has some depth to it, there isn’t a shallow story. The author does a very good job working them together to make great flow in putting the book together. I didn’t like the ending, but it fits right in showing how the characters had finished their destiny on what they had started with the tunnels. There was no where else to go with their lives. You will laugh your head off at the kid caught in the tunnels with the rodent’s running back and forth over him. That well stay with you. This is a well written book worth reading.
The book has so many stories going at the same time by each character. Every character has a story line that has some depth to it, there isn’t a shallow story. The author does a very good job working them together to make great flow in putting the book together. I didn’t like the ending, but it fits right in showing how the characters had finished their destiny on what they had started with the tunnels. There was no where else to go with their lives. You will laugh your head off at the kid caught in the tunnels with the rodent’s running back and forth over him. That well stay with you. This is a well written book worth reading.
August 31, 2017
Digger by Joseph Flynn
This novel brings together the action of GI's who fought the VC's tunnel rats in Vietnam to the small town of Elk River, the original home of the American soldiers who fought in those VC tunnels, came home one short, and created their own tunnels under the town of Elk River. When all hell breaks loose, you'll understand how it's all relevant to the action and the novel. Thanks for a great read.
This novel brings together the action of GI's who fought the VC's tunnel rats in Vietnam to the small town of Elk River, the original home of the American soldiers who fought in those VC tunnels, came home one short, and created their own tunnels under the town of Elk River. When all hell breaks loose, you'll understand how it's all relevant to the action and the novel. Thanks for a great read.
August 10, 2019
Home
I am from a small town in ILLINOIS. Chillicothe is located on the Illinois river. My father tarted working at Caterpillar. I have forgotten how many strikes we endured growing up. Reading this book I could easily see Chillicothe as Elk City. My father would give me the books that he would read at work. This is one of those books. He passed away a a few years ago, reading this book always makes me feel closer to him.
I am from a small town in ILLINOIS. Chillicothe is located on the Illinois river. My father tarted working at Caterpillar. I have forgotten how many strikes we endured growing up. Reading this book I could easily see Chillicothe as Elk City. My father would give me the books that he would read at work. This is one of those books. He passed away a a few years ago, reading this book always makes me feel closer to him.
October 31, 2018
Good read
Once again Joe Flynn has written a really good story. Lots of action. Good characters. Strong story line of a town trying to survive.While I do recommend this book, I have to say I didn’t like the ending. The ending fits the story and is appropriate, I just didn’t like it. The book still gets the five stars.
Once again Joe Flynn has written a really good story. Lots of action. Good characters. Strong story line of a town trying to survive.While I do recommend this book, I have to say I didn’t like the ending. The ending fits the story and is appropriate, I just didn’t like it. The book still gets the five stars.
October 27, 2021
Good character driven story
The characters are veterans of a little publicized part of the Vietnamese war. They use their expertise to keep themselves going and to try to keep their town from being taken over by a power hungry scammer who manipulated his way to ownership of the town's main industry. There is also a connection between the hero and heroine that adds some drama.
The characters are veterans of a little publicized part of the Vietnamese war. They use their expertise to keep themselves going and to try to keep their town from being taken over by a power hungry scammer who manipulated his way to ownership of the town's main industry. There is also a connection between the hero and heroine that adds some drama.
November 1, 2023
Not What I Expected
But I couldn't stop reading. I've read quite a few of Flynn's books and they all had one thing in common: an undercurrent of humor. Not DIGGER. This book is as serious as they come and my favorite of Flynn's work so far. It leaves you with a lot to think about.
But I couldn't stop reading. I've read quite a few of Flynn's books and they all had one thing in common: an undercurrent of humor. Not DIGGER. This book is as serious as they come and my favorite of Flynn's work so far. It leaves you with a lot to think about.
April 4, 2022
A High-Octane, Full-Bodied Read!
In this novel, Flynn demonstrated the most in-depth entertainment anyone could possibly want in a well-written story! No wasted paragraph fillers. Pure fast-paced reading from beginning to end!
In this novel, Flynn demonstrated the most in-depth entertainment anyone could possibly want in a well-written story! No wasted paragraph fillers. Pure fast-paced reading from beginning to end!
December 14, 2022
a page turner
Great read about the honor and brotherhood of Vietnam Veterans Impossible to put down. Don’t want to spoil the end for anyone but it may reflect the depth of sacrifice of Veterans all too well.
Great read about the honor and brotherhood of Vietnam Veterans Impossible to put down. Don’t want to spoil the end for anyone but it may reflect the depth of sacrifice of Veterans all too well.
December 3, 2023
Great Read
I Believe this was Joseph Flynn's 1st book I decided to read it because I had just finished the next president. I thought digger was even better than the next president Which I also thought was A great read. I couldn't put it down.
I Believe this was Joseph Flynn's 1st book I decided to read it because I had just finished the next president. I thought digger was even better than the next president Which I also thought was A great read. I couldn't put it down.
May 9, 2019
Different
Very different kind of story but a compelling read. Ending not what I expected from this author but a great read nonetheless.
Very different kind of story but a compelling read. Ending not what I expected from this author but a great read nonetheless.
March 1, 2020
The ending of this book has haunted me for years. I read it as a young man, and forgot the title, but I never forgot the last few pages. Thank God I found it again.
March 20, 2021
Wow!
So many twists and turns in this story!! What a page turner! I have read some if his other books but this one was excellent!
So many twists and turns in this story!! What a page turner! I have read some if his other books but this one was excellent!
May 12, 2022
Good Read
As good a book as I have read in a while. Could have used a different ending but it worked well. Flynn ties many different elements into one good novel.
As good a book as I have read in a while. Could have used a different ending but it worked well. Flynn ties many different elements into one good novel.
May 12, 2022
A good thriller with a lot of very interesting characters. I marked the rating as 4-star because some of the plot didn't seem realistic.
October 13, 2022
Characters appear real.
Made me wonder who they were taken after. Reminded me of some of my husbands Air Force friends from the Korean War and after.
Made me wonder who they were taken after. Reminded me of some of my husbands Air Force friends from the Korean War and after.
December 10, 2022
Tunnels?
This is a love hate story with good and bad people dying but even in the darkest hour light shines
Read this book you will love it.
This is a love hate story with good and bad people dying but even in the darkest hour light shines
Read this book you will love it.
October 25, 2023
I couldn’t go with 5 stars because I got lost with all the stories going on at the same time. I loved the references to and the use of one of my favorite books The Tunnels of Cu Chi.
January 28, 2024
What a great book! I highly recommend it! It grabs you from the start, and never let's go. I really enjoyed reading this book.
September 16, 2024
Great!
This story took some great turns. Tears in the end. Couldn't have been written any better than it was. 😥
This story took some great turns. Tears in the end. Couldn't have been written any better than it was. 😥
October 2, 2021
I enjoyed this book so much! However, BOO TO THE LANGUAGE! I would typically be passing this on to my sister to read, but I cannot due to the hideousness of the language! Shame on you, Joseph Flynn! Your mama should wash your mouth out with soap!
Besides the foul language, I enjoyed the vocabulary words that I had to look up: numismatists and philatelists on page 146, genuflected on page 161, laconically on page 197, ineffable on page 252, and milquetoast on page 310. Obviously, the author has a good vocabulary, so why not try writing a book without the foulness?! 🤔
Besides the foul language, I enjoyed the vocabulary words that I had to look up: numismatists and philatelists on page 146, genuflected on page 161, laconically on page 197, ineffable on page 252, and milquetoast on page 310. Obviously, the author has a good vocabulary, so why not try writing a book without the foulness?! 🤔
January 24, 2013
What an interesting concept... a local war fought via tunnels dug underneath a whole town. What Flynn gives us is an action packed thriller combining a labor dispute gone bad and Vietnam nightmares. A pretty good listen.
Note: This was a book that I received from a member at
Bookcrossing.com
Note: This was a book that I received from a member at
Bookcrossing.com
August 24, 2009
An awesome popcorn novel about a man who was a tunnel rat in Vietnam. He comes back to his hometown and starts digging tunnels all under it. Of course there is a bad guy who he has to do battle with, and of course the bad guy hires a former Viet Cong tunnel rat to fight against our hero. One of my favorite "bunker" books as it goes into great detail about some of the booby traps and countermeasures that our hero has put in his tunnel system. An excellent read that I am drawn to every couple years to re-read, love it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 14, 2012
it intrigues me that joseph flynn can write such different characters. i read a wack load of his books over my holiday, and each felt fresh. its hard to believe all those myriad of characters all sprouted from the same imagination!
don't be put off by the vietnam recovery vibe in the description. there's no question the history between the hero and his buddies (including the tunnels in which they met) play a huge part in the story. but as usual, this book is more about people's interactions with each other, not merely their surroundings.
don't be put off by the vietnam recovery vibe in the description. there's no question the history between the hero and his buddies (including the tunnels in which they met) play a huge part in the story. but as usual, this book is more about people's interactions with each other, not merely their surroundings.
February 4, 2016
In an effort at reconciliation, Three former Viet Nam "tunnel rats" spend years recreating the deadly Viet Cong tunnel system of Cu Chi in their peaceful town of Elk Grove Illinois. Above ground another war is being waged between a homicidal manufacturing plant owner and the local union. The tunnel rats use the their secret tunnels under the town to battle a new enemy that controls the future well being of Elk Grove.
Well drawn characters and good pacing make this a compelling mystery/thriller.
Well drawn characters and good pacing make this a compelling mystery/thriller.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews