Tin Soldiers

Mark Leonard
Zumaya Publications (2006)
ISBN 1554102685
Reviewed by Joanne Benham for Reader Views (9/06)

‘Tin Soldiers’ revolves around life at Maxwell Military Academy in 1970.  The Academy, headed by General Baylor, a hands-off leader who spends all of his time fund-raising, is shaken by the death of cadet Tim Sheridan who tumbled to his death from the roof of Jefferson Barracks.  Tim’s father, a member of the Academy’s Board of Directors, wants the truth about how his son died.  Was it a suicide, an accident or a murder?  Richard ‘King’ Arthur, company commander of Battery A, Jefferson Barracks is assigned the task of uncovering that truth.  As he probes into the death, uncovering some nasty secrets, Arthur finds himself in a moral dilemma.  Should he ignore the facts staring him in the face and agree with the story the Academy hierarchy espouses or should he tell the truth and possibly lose his scholarship to Harvard University?

This is an extremely well written book, with a great cast of characters.  The dialogue is superb, staying true to each character’s strange personality quirks and filled with humor despite the dark talk of murder.  A classic example of the inmates running the asylum as the cadets use every trick in the book for the greatest possible gain for themselves while the administrators sail blithely on their way, secure in the knowledge that they have everything under control.  

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