A Vietnam era Catch-22 by the author of The Company

Robert Littell is often compared to John le Carre, Alan Furst, and Len Deighton. But in Sweet Reason, this master of the spy genre takes a dramatic departure to brilliantly satirize career militarists and other absurdities of war.

Somewhere off the coast of Southeast Asia, the U.S.S. Eugene F. Ebersole-a rusted World War II relic whose best days are far past- patrols the waters on a mission to protect American values in this suddenly-not-so-Cold War. The decrepit destroyer's mission is to apprehend or annihilate anything suspicious, but someone on board is preaching peace and the ship's motley crew is not quite as motivated as its ambitious commander.