Many of the popular thrillers published in the U.S. tend to revolve around the CIA, the KGB, or Nazis. High Crimes is a notable exception. It centers on the neglected topic of U.S. military intervention in Central America under the Reagan Administration. And author Joseph Finder shows no love for the policy the US government pursued. In High Crimes, he depicts Special Forces running amok.
It’s 1996. Tom Chapman is a loving, family man who runs his own investment firm in Boston and lives with his adoring wife, Claire. She’s better known as Claire Heller, a Harvard Law School professor with a reputation for merciless performances in the courtroom. Then, all too soon, we discover that Tom Chapman doesn’t appear to be the man he says he is. The U.S. Army claims his true name is Ronald Kubik, a former Master Sergeant in the Special Forces. And they proceed to put him on trial for the 1983 massacre of 87 innocent civilians. The alleged massacre took place in a village in El Salvador in reprisal for leftist guerrillas’ murder of four Americans in the capital. Claire (of course!) moves to defend him in his court-martial.
Sustained suspense, and a critique of US policy
The suspense in this cleverly plotted and tightly written novel circles around whether Tom is really Ron Kubik—and whether he really was responsible for the massacre. Finder skillfully keeps the reader guessing nearly until the end. Along the way he works in an unflattering picture of U.S. foreign and military policy in Vietnam as well as Central America and of the stifling bureaucracy in the Pentagon. His characters, every one believable, include former and current Army attorneys from the JAG Corps, the Chief of Staff of the Army, a shadowy CIA agent, and a whiny six-year-old girl.
High Crimes by Joseph Finder (1998) 417 pages ★★★★☆
El Salvador’s devastating civil war
The Salvadoran Civil War (1979-92) “resulted in the deaths of 75,000 civilians, countless acts of torture, sexual violence, gender-based violence, and the enforced disappearance [of at least 8,000 people], among other atrocities,” according to the UN. From its outset, the US Government, first under Jimmy Carter and later under Ronald Reagan, became actively involved on the side of the military. The US feared a Communist takeover, characterizing the insurgent FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) as a tool of the USSR. Americans played a major role in training, equipping, and often leading Salvadoran troops. US Special Forces might well have been actively engaged in the conflict, as this novel suggests. And there might well have been an atrocity like the one Finder describes in this novel. The war came to an end only with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
About the author
Joseph Finder is the author of 18 thrillers and one sensational nonfiction book, an exposé of multimillionaire oilman Armand Hammer‘s longstanding ties to the KGB. Hollywood has adapted two of his novels, including High Crimes, into feature films. Finder was born in Chicago in 1958. He spent most of his early childhood in Afghanistan and the Philippines. Back in the states, he majored in Russian studies at Yale, graduating summa cum laude. He then earned a master’s degree from the Harvard Russian Research Center and later joined the Harvard faculty. He claims to have been recruited to the CIA but turned it down to pursue writing instead. In addition to his novels, Finder writes on espionage and foreign affairs for the Washington Post and the New York Times.
For related reading
I’ve reviewed many other books by the same author at Industrial espionage, spies, and high finance: The Joseph Finder thrillers. And you might also enjoy my posts:
- The 15 best espionage novels
- Good nonfiction books about espionage
- The best spy novelists writing today
- Top 10 mystery and thriller series
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