Perfect Killer: More Threads Than The Average Thriller
The Publisher's Weekly review got me to thinking that the average book reviewer was likely to miss some of the elements in Perfect Killer. Obviously different readers will see different things in a book so I thought I'd try to list a few things that I had intended the book to be.
The Military Investigative Story
I set out to write fiction book about a drug to turn the average soldier into the equivalent of special forces, but as I got into it, I realized that there was a lot of fact to the story. As a former investigative reporter in Washington (Gannett, Dow Jones, Jack Anderson) it's ironic that this fictional account may have led me to the most important story yet.
The military's program is continuing and aims to create the "holy grail" of combat pharmacology: a class of drugs called a "nondepleting neurotrop."
The non-fiction Afterword written by Dr. Richard A. Gabriel makes it clear that the implications for warfare are awesome and could result in the most incredible escalation of bloodshed in military History. He and others believe that a form of this drug was tested on soldiers in the first Gulf War and may be responsible for one form of Gulf War syndrome.
Dr. Gabriel's Afterword indicates that he thinks I have treated the issue accurately and framed the consequences appropriately.
In brief: throughout history, a battle has been won or lost when one side either surrenders or breaks and runs. Either way, many lives are saved, bloodshed avoided and human capital preserved. But with both sides wired on the nondepleting neurotrop, the battle will be a slaughter that lasts until one side is so completely decimated that no one is left to pull the trigger. The death and destruction will be horrendous.
Indeed, this is the single most serious strategy and technology issue facing the military today and yet there is no public debate whatsoever.
This Question and Answer Page has more about the real-life military issues.
NEXT POST: The Southern/Civil Rights Story
The Military Investigative Story
I set out to write fiction book about a drug to turn the average soldier into the equivalent of special forces, but as I got into it, I realized that there was a lot of fact to the story. As a former investigative reporter in Washington (Gannett, Dow Jones, Jack Anderson) it's ironic that this fictional account may have led me to the most important story yet.
The military's program is continuing and aims to create the "holy grail" of combat pharmacology: a class of drugs called a "nondepleting neurotrop."
The non-fiction Afterword written by Dr. Richard A. Gabriel makes it clear that the implications for warfare are awesome and could result in the most incredible escalation of bloodshed in military History. He and others believe that a form of this drug was tested on soldiers in the first Gulf War and may be responsible for one form of Gulf War syndrome.
Dr. Gabriel's Afterword indicates that he thinks I have treated the issue accurately and framed the consequences appropriately.
In brief: throughout history, a battle has been won or lost when one side either surrenders or breaks and runs. Either way, many lives are saved, bloodshed avoided and human capital preserved. But with both sides wired on the nondepleting neurotrop, the battle will be a slaughter that lasts until one side is so completely decimated that no one is left to pull the trigger. The death and destruction will be horrendous.
Indeed, this is the single most serious strategy and technology issue facing the military today and yet there is no public debate whatsoever.
This Question and Answer Page has more about the real-life military issues.
NEXT POST: The Southern/Civil Rights Story
posted by Lewis Perdue at 6:55 AM
1 Comments:
I didn't know St. Martin's was affiliated with Forge Lew. My historian is with St. Martin's.
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