By Timothy Scott
Special to THE DAILY

Fans of military fiction will welcome this latest installment from Jim DeFelice. It’s so good, in fact, that the DeFelice faithful may recheck the jacket while reading the book asking, “Who wrote this?”

If this is your first sample of DeFelice, you will find “Leopards Kill” a complex psychological struggle as a war veteran-cum-businessman returns to Afghanistan to rescue his wayward business partner. This is easily DeFelice’s best work and offers much more than the bombs and guns usually found in this genre.

Jack Pilgrim, late of the U.S. Army Special Forces, saw incredible action in Afghanistan as U.S. forces helped usher the Taliban out of its leadership position in the desert nation.

We pick up Pilgrim as his successful contract security company (think mercenaries) stumbles when business partner and Army buddy Mercury Conrad absconds with $2 million in CIA funds.

Rumors indicate Conrad has gone native while under contract to the CIA in Afghanistan and is setting himself up as warlord in a remote province of that war-ravaged country.

Pilgrim, motivated in no small way by threats from the CIA, drops the business meeting with potential new clients, leaves his sleeping wife in a Las Vegas hotel, and sets out to rescue his partner.

Freshly returned to Afghanistan, Pilgrim struggles to regain his combat edge — that preternatural ability to sense and avoid danger. At times numbed by introspection, he confronts abject lawlessness in capital city Kabul; at best, apathetic local authorities; and a U.S. government that is summarily withdrawing all troops and support.

Finally garnering enough information and able to hire and equip a small attack team of mercenaries and misfits, Pilgrim departs Kabul under fire from rivals and authorities alike. Meanwhile, we readers glimpse the possible result if U.S. forces, and the stability provided by those forces, are too hastily withdrawn from the region.

While the action is predictable in the military sense, how DeFelice sets the battle within Pilgrim’s psyche to stand as an allegory to the disaster that is the Afghani society is stunning.

Jack struggles to resolve his current business successes against marital discord brought on by his too rapid increase in fortune against the obvious debt and affection he feels toward Conrad.

While amid its squalor, Afghanistan provides a reminder of how easily civilization fails when greed and fundamentalism replace the rule of law.

This one is a must-read on your summer list! The insights provided into Pilgrim’s mind, the malfunctioning Afghan society, and the role and rule of warlord fundamentalists make “Leopards Kill” worth the visit to Central Asia.

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