The Three-Nine Line

The Three-Nine Line (Murder Mystery)

“A Cordell Logan Mystery”

By David Freed

The Permanent Press www.thepermanentpress.com

ISBN #978-1579623999

280 Pages

Price $29.00 (Hardcover)

Rating 5-Stars

“Well Written With A Good Twist.”

Vietnam. Where Americans died. Where pilots were shot down and captured, spending years in captivity in the North’s Hanoi Hilton, being tortured. Now America is seeking a Trade Agreement with Vietnam, and three ex-POWs are returning to Hanoi as good will ambassadors to cement the agreement. At a meeting, they are reunited with a vicious guard they nicknamed “Mr. Wonderful”, who provided some of the more horrific torture. The former POWs are to let him know they no longer carry any grudge against him or Vietnam. But the next day Mr. Wonderful is found murdered, and two ex-POWs are arrested for his murder.

The President wants an investigator sent to Hanoi to unravel the mystery, and hopefully save the Trade Agreement. Cordell Logan, private pilot instructor, and ex-Alpha team assassin is called back into service. His old friend is now heading another unit, and he wants Logan to go to Hanoi, disguised as a psychiatrist named Bob Barker to act as the prisoners’ doctor while in confinement.

This was a well-written mystery with a good twist. The setting was a good touch, and using ex-POWs as characters, though fictional, was a good plot tool. In 1973 I was part of security for Operation Welcome Home in California where families awaited aircraft bringing their heroes home. It’s a time I’ll never forget, as those men stepped off the planes, and their families rushing through the security ropes to get to them. We wouldn‘t have stopped them if we wanted, and we didn’t want to. We also guarded them at news conferences and in the hospital. 42 years ago, and you never hear about those heroes today. Even the war in Vietnam is almost forgotten. But this is a mystery story, and I highly recommend it to mystery lovers.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories