The Good Lieutenant (Paperback) - Whitney Terrell

A gripping, insightful, necessary novel of the war that is proving to be the defining tragedy of our time: the second Iraq War.

Whitney Terrell's remarkable novel of the Iraq War, The Good Lieutenant, literally starts with a bang, as an operation led by Lieutenant Emma Fowler goes spectacularly wrong. Men are dead - one, a young Iraqi, by her hand. Others of the casualties were soldiers in her platoon. And the signals officer, Dixon Pulowski. Pulowski is another story entirely - Fowler and Pulowski have been lovers since they first met at Fort Riley in Kansas . . .

From this conflagration, The Good Lieutenant unspools backward in time as Fowler and her platoon are guided into disaster by suspect informants and questionable intelligence, their very mission the consequence of a previous snafu in which an American soldier had been kidnapped by insurgents. We hear the voice of Lieutenant Fowler but also those of jaded career soldiers and Iraqis both innocent and not so innocent. Ultimately, as all these stories unravel, Terrell reveals what can happen when good intentions destroy, experience distorts, and survival becomes everything.

About the Author

Whitney Terrell was an embedded reporter in Iraq during 2006 and 2010 and covered the war for the Washington Post, Slate, and NPR. He teaches creative writing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and lives nearby with his family. He is the author of two previous novels, including The King of Kings County.