Asheville, North Carolina – October 1973

A mysterious explosion occurs in an older building at the Pisgah Mountain Veterans Administration Hospital, and firefighters find two men’s bodies in the ruins. One victim is Major Henry Campos, Avivah Rosen’s former Military Police Commander in Vietnam; the other is an old veteran living in the VA residence home. Campos's death triggers an FBI investigation; it seems to be related to other recent deaths, also of military police assigned to Vietnam at the same time. Avivah, the last surviving member of this group, and the last one who knows the possible reason behind these murders, must decide whether to reveal the truth and risk military prison, or allow more deaths, possibly her own, to occur. Why would anyone lure the old veteran to his death; how is that connected?

Avivah’s housemate, nurse and veteran Elizabeth “Pepper” Pepperhawk, also faces an uncomfortable truth when a supervisor on the scene during the explosion smells alcohol on her breath. The complication of disciplinary action may affect not only her career, but also her ability to help her friend, Avivah. Their third housemate, Benny, an ex-Green Beret, feels stretched to the limit trying to guard Avivah and Pepper from an unknown threat while he also goes to school full-time and helps care for his girlfriend’s children.

All three characters find themselves in deep waters as they adapt to civilian life and investigate murder. Everything comes to a head when a reporter who contacted Avivah is shot. Revealing the truth becomes urgent.

Sharon Wildwind served with the U.S. Army Nurse Corps doing a one-year tour in Vietnam. In an interview with Lonie Cruse online (http//loniecruse.blogspot.com), Ms. Wildwind states that her series is not “a polemic about war or soldiering… that while time and money was spent to turn civilians into soldiers…absolutely none was spent to turn soldiers back into civilians.” She compared it to “coming up from a deep dive with no time to decompress.” Ms Wildwind took me right back to the 1970s and reminded me of the veterans I met who were uneasily adjusting to civilian life in a hostile environment. The pacing of the story is exciting, and the theme is grownup without being sleazy. I enjoyed this book and I will seek out the other titles.

SOLDIER ON THE PORCH is the third of the Elizabeth Pepperhawk/Avivah Rosen Mystery series. SOME WELCOME HOME and FIRST MURDER IN ADVENT are the first two titles in the series, with one more in progress: MISSING, PRESUMED WED.

Lisa Baca