In the Name of Honor by Richard North Patterson

In the Name of Honor begins with a murder, and becomes a bit of a mystery. Paul Terry is a lawyer with JAG, in the Army. The son of General McCarran, Army chief of staff, Brian, has shot a fellow officer, Joe Abruzzo, and killed him. Abruzzo's wife, Kate, grew up with the McCarran family, and is like an older sister to Brian, and the men had served together in Iraq. General McCarran requests that Terry be assigned to defend his son against murder charges, if a court martial is convened. Complicating Paul's job is Brian's sister, Meg, who is also a lawyer, and wants to be involved in her brother's defense.

Both men, it appears, are suffering from behavioral changes caused by PTSD, and I thought for a while this book might get overly political about the Iraq war, but Patterson managed to avoid getting preachy on the subject, although he did mention in the afterword that he hoped to call attention to the plight of veterans suffering from PTSD, who go largely untreated today. It also begins to leak out that Brian and Kate were having an affair, and that Joe knew about it. Joe's behavior had already become physically abusive towards Kate, and he'd threatened her life with a pistol. Brian had taken the pistol from the Abruzzo home to keep it away from Joe, and ended up killing Joe with it when Joe came to his apartment to confront him.

So, we've got this big complicated swirling mess, and Terry must do his job as a defense attorney and dig up all the facts and history he needs to successfully get Brian freed. Terry's job becomes even more complex when he and Meg become lovers, and he finds out more about her family's history through his relationship with her. There's a twist to the whole story which I picked up on right away, and kept waiting for the big reveal, which Patterson saves for the book's final pages.

A good solid read, vintage Patterson;.