27 January 1968

The Viet Cong call him "Black Ghost."

Jackson Monroe is the finest American sniper in Vietnam's treacherous Mekong Delta. Dispatched for a classified "illegal" mission on the Cambodia border, Monroe succeeds beyond expectation, only to be abandoned behind enemy lines and left for dead. Now, Monroe's superiors need his lifeless body, back and bagged, to prevent their own court martial.

But a cunning VC marksman knows better — clues indicate the Black Ghost stalks very close. And this American sniper must be killed before he compromises the North Vietnamese Army's meticulously planned New Year (Tet) offensive.

Snipers both, these two "silent men" cat and mouse through the delta terrain, a verdant landscape rendered brutal by political intrigue and harrowing firepower. And when American commanders discover Monroe may be alive, the brass must make an impossible choice — whether to rescue or kill him.

In the tradition of William Craig (Enemy at the Gates), David L. Robbins (The War of the Rats), and Stephen Coonts (Flight of the Intruder), THE SILENT MEN is at once subtle, sharp, and devastating. Richard H. Dickinson's superlative writing, brilliantly realized characters, and tick-tock action make him the point man for the next generation of military thriller.