What do you think?
Rate this book
Jack Caleb & John Thinnes #5
White Tiger
John Thinnes, a detective on the Chicago police force, and Jack Caleb, a well-known psychiatrist, were friends---unlikely friends, maybe, with very different lives, but men who liked and respected each other. And they had one significant experience in common: Both had been "in country" in Vietnam during the war. Their "labels" were different---Thinnes had been in the military police, Caleb a medic, a conscientious objector who chose to fight with his medical equipment and his ability as a doctor as his weapons, whether his patients were wounded on the field of battle or on the crowded, dangerous streets of Saigon. Arriving home, both men would have liked to forget the horrors of that war but could not banish them from their memory. They had left Vietnam, but Vietnam would never leave them.
In the years since the war ended, Thinnes married and fathered a son, Caleb prospered with his psychiatric practice and found a gay lover. Later, a series of murders and rapes brought the police officer and the psychiatrist together in an oddly matched friendship, each contributing his special knowledge to try to solve crimes that were hard to unravel.
But memories remain---ugly memories of maiming and killing on both sides, not only of soldiers but of innocent Vietnamese farmers and their families, of drug dealers and the city's poor. And now, on a morning shortly into the new millennium, Jack Caleb is listening to the radio and hears of the shooting death of a Vietnamese immigrant woman in Chicago's "Little Saigon," and a flashback leaves him trembling.
Thinnes's reaction to the murder is of a different kind. He had been assigned to the murder case, but when his lieutenant learns that Thinnes had known the dead woman in Saigon, had even attended her marriage to his now-dead buddy, he takes him off the case, leaving Thinnes's partner to use her outstanding talents as a detective under the officer who takes John Thinnes's place.
This, however, does not stop Thinnes from doggedly continuing the search for the woman's killer. Word on the street in Little Saigon is that the "White Tiger" is now in Chicago. "White Tiger" is the only known name for a mysterious and savage drug dealer and all-around criminal who terrorized even the toughest thugs in Vietnam.
Both men dig, together and each in his own way, for the reason this innocent woman was murdered, both thoroughly aware that by searching in the deep, they are offering their own lives to the Tiger's wrath.
Michael Allen Dymmoch has faultlessly linked the horrors of the war in Vietnam, from the viewpoints of those on both sides of the conflict and also from the hearts and minds of two very different men, and has woven them into a thrilling story of terror in the past and in the very present Now.
In the years since the war ended, Thinnes married and fathered a son, Caleb prospered with his psychiatric practice and found a gay lover. Later, a series of murders and rapes brought the police officer and the psychiatrist together in an oddly matched friendship, each contributing his special knowledge to try to solve crimes that were hard to unravel.
But memories remain---ugly memories of maiming and killing on both sides, not only of soldiers but of innocent Vietnamese farmers and their families, of drug dealers and the city's poor. And now, on a morning shortly into the new millennium, Jack Caleb is listening to the radio and hears of the shooting death of a Vietnamese immigrant woman in Chicago's "Little Saigon," and a flashback leaves him trembling.
Thinnes's reaction to the murder is of a different kind. He had been assigned to the murder case, but when his lieutenant learns that Thinnes had known the dead woman in Saigon, had even attended her marriage to his now-dead buddy, he takes him off the case, leaving Thinnes's partner to use her outstanding talents as a detective under the officer who takes John Thinnes's place.
This, however, does not stop Thinnes from doggedly continuing the search for the woman's killer. Word on the street in Little Saigon is that the "White Tiger" is now in Chicago. "White Tiger" is the only known name for a mysterious and savage drug dealer and all-around criminal who terrorized even the toughest thugs in Vietnam.
Both men dig, together and each in his own way, for the reason this innocent woman was murdered, both thoroughly aware that by searching in the deep, they are offering their own lives to the Tiger's wrath.
Michael Allen Dymmoch has faultlessly linked the horrors of the war in Vietnam, from the viewpoints of those on both sides of the conflict and also from the hearts and minds of two very different men, and has woven them into a thrilling story of terror in the past and in the very present Now.
- GenresMystery
320 pages, Hardcover
First published November 29, 2005
10 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Michael Allen Dymmoch
16 books19 followersMichael Dymmoch was born in Illinois and grew up in a suburb northwest of Kentucky. As a child she kept a large number of small vertebrates for pets and aspired to become a snake charmer, Indian chief or veterinarian. She was precluded from realizing the former ambitions by a lack of charm and Indian ancestry and from the achieving the latter by poor grades in calculus and physics. This made her angry enough to kill. Fortunately, before committing mayhem, she stumbled upon a book titled Maybe You Should Write a Book and was persuaded to sublimate her felonious fantasies. Moving to Chicago gave Michael additional incentives to harm individuals who piss her off. On paper of course.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 21, 2013
My favorite of this series. This book gives us more background on both characters, and the Vietnam War backdrop adds intensity to the book.
July 25, 2022
White Tiger
Another excellent read by this author. She takes us to Vietnam during the ill fated war in the 70's. Both John Thinnes, a detective, and Dr. Jack Caleb, the departments psych consultant, work together to capture The White Tiger. The storyline is very interesting. It blends flashbacks of the war with the present. There are revelations that throw more light on the lives of both men. It was a bummer when I finished this last book. I hope that Ms. Dymmoch will write another fascinating book with Thinnes and Caleb. I recommend this series for anyone who loves a good mystery.
Another excellent read by this author. She takes us to Vietnam during the ill fated war in the 70's. Both John Thinnes, a detective, and Dr. Jack Caleb, the departments psych consultant, work together to capture The White Tiger. The storyline is very interesting. It blends flashbacks of the war with the present. There are revelations that throw more light on the lives of both men. It was a bummer when I finished this last book. I hope that Ms. Dymmoch will write another fascinating book with Thinnes and Caleb. I recommend this series for anyone who loves a good mystery.
July 17, 2023
The hook in this series is the relationship between two unlikely men, a skeptical, flawed, policeman and a polished, gay, psychologist. In this book, however, there isn't quite as much interaction between the two. Both have continuous and disturbing flashbacks to their time in VietNam. While the mystery is tied to Thinnes' time there, it takes a back seat to the war remembrances and seems to be wrapped up suddenly with a Bruce Lee kind of action.
March 29, 2024
When Jack Caleb and John Thinnes returned from Vietnam they brought the trauma of the war back. But something else also came back with them and is on the prowl again- the White Tiger. White Tiger’s true identity is unknown but in order to stop more killings it must be discovered. A gripping story.
August 24, 2007
WHITE TIGER (Police Procedural-Chicago-Cont/1970s) – VG
Dymmoch, Michael Allen – 5th in series
Thomas Dunne Books, 2005 – Hardcover
Detective John Thinnes views the body of a murder victim at the morgue, and realizes she was the Vietnamese wife of his best friend when serving as an MP during the Vietnam War. Upon meeting the late woman's son, he remembers his friends' wedding night, waking up hangover and naked and now wonders whether he could be the boy's father. Thinnes goes to his friend Dr. Jack Calab, a psychiatrist, who served in Vietnam as a medic and is in a veteran's group dealing with his own memories of that experience. When one of the group members is murdered, it links the two cases together with tales of the White Tiger, a mysterious criminal from Vietnam, now in Chicago.
*** I have been an admirer of Ms. Dymmoch's work from the beginning and regret more people are not aware of her. While I love her previous titles, they may have caused people to think her books are light. This book, with it succinct title, will certainly remedy that perception. For those of us with friends and/or relatives who fought, and died, in Vietnam, this is a painful but wonderfully written book. The story is told in alternating perspectives of Thinnes and Calab, as well as the present and the past, but it absolutely works. While there is a present-day case to be solved, the story is really about the experiences and impact of war on those who fight it. One of the members of Calab's group is from Desert Storm. The mystery and suspense serve almost as a backdrop, but it's absolutely a book well worth reading.
Dymmoch, Michael Allen – 5th in series
Thomas Dunne Books, 2005 – Hardcover
Detective John Thinnes views the body of a murder victim at the morgue, and realizes she was the Vietnamese wife of his best friend when serving as an MP during the Vietnam War. Upon meeting the late woman's son, he remembers his friends' wedding night, waking up hangover and naked and now wonders whether he could be the boy's father. Thinnes goes to his friend Dr. Jack Calab, a psychiatrist, who served in Vietnam as a medic and is in a veteran's group dealing with his own memories of that experience. When one of the group members is murdered, it links the two cases together with tales of the White Tiger, a mysterious criminal from Vietnam, now in Chicago.
*** I have been an admirer of Ms. Dymmoch's work from the beginning and regret more people are not aware of her. While I love her previous titles, they may have caused people to think her books are light. This book, with it succinct title, will certainly remedy that perception. For those of us with friends and/or relatives who fought, and died, in Vietnam, this is a painful but wonderfully written book. The story is told in alternating perspectives of Thinnes and Calab, as well as the present and the past, but it absolutely works. While there is a present-day case to be solved, the story is really about the experiences and impact of war on those who fight it. One of the members of Calab's group is from Desert Storm. The mystery and suspense serve almost as a backdrop, but it's absolutely a book well worth reading.
February 11, 2012
Apparently this is at least the second in a series, so it seemed that some of the characters' personalities and relationships were assumed. I had trouble keeping track between Jack Caleb and John Thinnes, between their flashbacks, lots of others' flashbacks, and the fact that they would refer to "Jack" or "Caleb" among several others in a group. It took a while before I figured that Jack and Caleb were the same person. Confusing. I guess this was an okay mystery, and I don't read lots of mysteries. But I'm hoping to find a better mystery.
September 10, 2015
Except for the jumping back and forth in time, I really liked the book. I think I understand why she did it, though. The gruesome parts of the war would have been too much to take all in one section. Actually, it kept me awake at night reading for plot development. I liked the theme of slowing developing and earned trust. Some might say that the ending was predictable and trite, but it was satisfying to me.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews