Honor Bound

Best known for his series Brotherhood of War and The Corps, Griffin's new WW II novel uses the relatively unexplored theater of South America as the backdrop for his fast-paced story of a father and son, conflicting loyalties and war. In late 1942, marine fighter ace Clete Frade, Army demolitions engineer Anthony Pelosi and electronics wizard David Ettinger are sent by the OSS on a top-secret mission to neutral Argentina: destroy a merchant ship that has been supplying Nazi submarines and raiders. But the projected raid is only the tip of the novel's iceberg. The U.S. is hoping that Clete will be able to influence his estranged father, an eminence grise in Argentine politics by the name of ``El Coronel'' Jorge Guillermo Frade, to throw his influence behind the Allies. Meanwhile, Luftwaffe ace Peter von Wachtstein heads to Buenos Aires to consolidate the Nazi position. The Frades are convincing central characters, whose developing father-son relationship anchors much of the novel's plot. Griffin's reconstruction of upper-class Argentine society in the 1940s provides an exotic and credible setting for a tautly written story whose twists and turns will keep readers guessing until the last page. (Jan.)