Holy kee-rap but there's a lot going on in KURTZ, the debut novel from John Lawson III. I mean the title alone flashed me back to Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS, which in turn made me remember watching APOCALYPSE NOW in a darkened military theater filled with mesmerized GIs. So, as I was reading the book, I kept looking for connections. And I know they are there, but alas, it's been nearly sixty years since I read Conrad, and forty-plus since that classic film with Brando, Sheen and Duvall. So yeah, I'm old, and my memory is not what it used to be thousands of books ago.

But I tried. And Lawson's Kurtz is a long ways from Conrad's. Annie Kurtz is an attractive Vassar-educated young woman who enjoys a challenge, so she joins the Marines after college with dreams of a different sort of life, but her plans are repeatedly thwarted by an older, higher ranking officer, a Lieutenant-Colonel Jones, who enjoys using his power and is an unashamed and amoral careerist caught up in his climb to the top, and enamored with nonsensical military jargon and acronyms. Kurtz on the other hand is a person of conscience who feels deeply for the plight of the women and children she deals with in the quagmire of the war in Afghanistan. She runs afoul of cultural differences and, in a moment of personal revulsion and imminent danger, her Marine training and muscle memory kicks in, and - tap, rack, bang - an important, if evil, Afghan partner is dead. A quick cover-up is implemented, and Kurtz's life - and career plans - are forever changed.

Lawson's narrator is no Marlow, but he's close. A journalist, his name is Nick Willard, and he has known Annie Kurtz since childhood, and has been hopelessly in love with her since their Boston area prep school days. But alas, she is three years older and thus - in the way of teenage thinking - unattainable. But they 'almost' hook up when Nick, as a William & Mary sophomore, is drafted as her date to a Marine Corps Ball. This is frustratingly followed by years of unrequited love, as Annie considers Nick her closest friend and trusted confidante while he pines for her. Because, as any real guy knows, in the world of dating, mating and romance, to be considered "just friends" is the kiss of death. So yeah, poor Nick. Who is no Marlow, although he travels up his own dark river of discovery, trying to discern what it is that has so changed his beloved Annie since her return from her tour in Afghanistan.

Oh, and the name Nick Willard. I initially thought of Nick Carraway, the "moral voice" and narrator of THE GREAT GATSBY. But then I Googled the name and discovered Nick Willard was a pseudonym for a military officer who wrote dispatches for The Daily Beast in the last days of the war in Afghanistan. Which is probably an apt analogy, but I'll let some other book geek research that comparison.

But here's the main thing: KURTZ is, first and foremost, at least to my mind, a love story. Because Nick is so hopelessly besotted with Annie for so long, you just have to root for him. Although he is certainly no monk during all those years of longing and being her confidante. He has a second-choice girlfriend and fiancee for a few years in there. Do these two main characters live happily ever after? I'm not telling. But I couldn't help but think that many women readers will love this book as much as I did. And yeah, I did - love this book, I mean. Because, as I said earlier, there is a lot going on here and so much to think about. That military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us against so many years ago is, sadly, alive and well, and has in fact become the driving engine of our economy. That's in here too. This is just flat out one helluva good book. Bravo, Mr Lawson! My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA ( )