|
| ISBN # 978-0-9748869-2-3 |
Between Duty and Devotion by M.J. Brett, is the
story of a fast track career military officer, whose marriage is
secretly on the rocks. As soldiers return from Iraq even today, they
find that the pressures of a military deployment can be stressful to
their marriages. |
When a man joins the military, the joke is,
“If the Army wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued
you one.” By the time he reaches the rank of Lt. Colonel, he is
told, “If you can’t handle your wife, you can’t
handle commanding troops.” |
While millions of military families have strong
marriages that survive the pressure of command, deployment separations,
and tension, some marriages, those that were weak to start with, will
not make the cut. |
But what choices does an officer have if his
marriage is disastrous? A messy divorce can end his career. A love
affair, if discovered, can bring disgrace and a court marshal. Staying
married and “playing the game” may bring promotion and
prestige, but it also breeds hypocrisy and eventual hatred and violence. |
The
novel is one of loneliness and longing, family malice, infidelity, and
betrayal. But the mystery is for the reader to determine who really betrayed whom. It is also the tale of a life-long, loyalty that nothing can tarnish. |
A gifted officer, Neil Sedgwick, becomes exhausted
and lonely after years of his wife’s rejection and tells her he
wants a quiet divorce so as not to destroy his Army career. Eventually,
he falls in love with a woman he sees as his life’s companion and
naively believes he can protect the woman he loves, his children, and
his next promotion. When his estranged wife threatens both his career
and his children’s custody, she declares she will
“…pin on his general’s stars, or be damned sure he
never gets them.”
His most painful choice comes when he learns
that command of a military unit is not necessarily command of his own
life. Where can he turn when the choice is between his duty to the
military and his devotion to the woman he loves? |
|
|
A novel of a military officer’s dilemma |
........................................................................................................................................................................................................ |
|
