The Vets

by Stephen Leather

Book Overview

Hong Kong. The British administration is preparing to hand the capitalist colony back to Communist China with the minimum of fuss. Colonel Joel Tyler, however, has other plans for the British colony -... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671743031
• ISBN13: 9780671743031
• Release Date: September 1993
• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Length: 459 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

What's wrong with me?

By rights, THE VETS should be a 5-star read. I'm taking this opportunity for self-appraisal to try and understand why, for me, it's not. It's a couple of years before Hong Kong is to revert to Red China. Chinese expatriate Anthony Chung meets in Paris with ex-U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Joel Tyler to set in motion plans for the Heist of the Century in Britain's last jewel in the crown. To that end, Tyler implements an elaborate scheme to recruit other U.S. Army vets of the Vietnam war for the venture. He ultimately attracts ex-Huey pilot Dan Lehmen, a phony investments scammer on the run from the Mob, ex-Tunnel Rat Eric Horvitz, a border-line sociopath living alone in the Canadian woods, ex-Huey door gunner Larry Carmody, who left Nam with a chip on his shoulder and minus one forearm, and ex-Huey crew chief Barton Lewis, a lonely divorcé recently diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer. Then there's ex-Air America, i.e. CIA, chopper pilot Chuck Doherty, who fled a murderous Special Forces operation in Laos, only to stash his Huey in the Thai jungle and live as a Buddhist monk these last twenty-two years. This thriller is intricately constructed with more than the usual amount of character development. There's even a plot twist, although the reader is let into the secret 120 pages before the book's conclusion and it's left only to see how Dan, Eric, Larry, Bart, and Chuck fare before the dust settles. THE VETS is actually a hard book to put down, but I was left with a niggling dissatisfaction. I think it's because there wasn't anybody serving as a protagonist whom I could cheer on from the sidelines, though Lewis perhaps comes the closest. The ultimate beneficiary of the plot is only introduced seven pages before the last, and my reaction was "Why should I care?" In the meantime during the previous 557 pages, our "heroes" have shown a willingness to break the law and/or have been instrumental in ruining the lives of people who, if not always likable, are at least innocent bystanders in the conventional sense. Now, mind you, I'm no goody two shoes. If I was starving, I'd forcefully shove into the gutter an 80-year old granny reaching for the world's last slice of pizza. But, that wasn't the case here, and I'm knocking one star off THE VETS for it's lack of a moral lynch pin.

The Vets and Other Books by Stephen Leather

I discovered this author when travelling in SE Asia. I rate him as one of the best thriller writers I know of and find it strange to find him in 'not in print' in the USA. His 'The Vets' deals with US Vietnam veterans, and his work covers a very wide geographical range, from Bankok to LA...Stephen Leather has a large following in the UK and deserves better treatment on this side of the Atlantic...

a novel which overshadows jeffery archer

The vets by stephen leather is one of the best novels written on the changing scenarios of hong kong before the chinese take over .The plot is very beautifull with a lot of twists authors grip remains firm throughout the novel .The novel also seems to be a very good travel guide of bangkok vietnam and hong kong.I recommend this novel to every fiction lover.

A good read

Mr. Leather writes a good story. The Vets themselves are somewhat stereotypical, but the characters are developed sufficiently so that we know them, and care what happens to them. The insights into post Communist takeover Viet Nam were interesting. A dual story line, that only intersects with the Vets near the end, deals with Hong Kong before it's reversion to the Chinese. Here the main character is quite mysterious until the end, and the explanation is somewhat disappointing. The "bad guy" gets his in the end, but also in a somewhat anti-climactic & disappointing way. The book was informative, interesting, and kept me reading until the end. The sex scenes were tasteful, yet exciting. Overall the story is a little hard to accept, but that's what fiction is all about...suspending belief. I recommend the book.

If you don't like "KOWLUNG TONG", try this one!!!

This is a very exciting and very good written novel about the years before the coming 1997 in Hong Kong. Since Mr. S. Leather has been stayed in the Far East for over 18 years and mostly spent in Hong Kong. The description of the scenary and what's happening and what has happened before 1997 was a very deep and vividly portrayed. A very complicated and very absorbing, twisted story of adultery, betrayal, VietNam Syndrome and a robbery carried out by a Rolex accuracy and precision. Very interesting and fast paced novel. Highly recommended