The American

A disfigured army veteran returns to Vietnam to come to terms with his past and help a friend solve a murder in this gritty paranormal thriller from Thomas (The Unnamed Country). In 1970, staff sergeant Richard Trenor lost an eye to a Vietcong soldier’s bullet, an injury that also endowed him with the gift of second sight, enabling him to see both ghosts and swarms of vermin that indicate the capacity for evil in others. Forty years later, Trenor is summoned to Ho Chi Minh City by Thanh, the son of an army buddy, to investigate the murder of Thanh’s eight-year-old sister. As Trenor uses his paranormal ability to find the murderer, his investigation puts him on a collision course with a contract killer and a cannibalistic psychopath, both Americans living in Vietnam. Thomas offers an unsentimental portrait of the seamy side of postwar Vietnam and the differing American attitudes toward the country. This bracing supernatural tale easily pulls readers into its dark, disturbing mystery. (Nov.)