If you want someone to accurately describe the heat of military combat, it pays to ask a soldier. And retired Army Colonel David Hackworth is, in the words of the Washington Post Book World, "an exceptional warrior...and a soldier's soldier," an accomplished war hero whose quarter-century-long military career includes World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the twenty-five year long Cold War. But Hackworth is more than a soldier; he's also a talented writer. His account of his years in the military, ABOUT FACE: The Odyssey of an American Warrior, was an international bestseller that the New York Times praised as "[e]verything a 20th-century memoir could possibly be - a daydream of battlefield glory come true." For the past ten years, Hackworth has also been a successful military reporter and columnist, a career that has brought him back to the battlefield - he covered Desert Storm for Newsweek - but with a very different perspective from the days when he wore a uniform.

Drawing on his extensive experience as both soldier and journalist, Hackworth's first novel, THE PRICE OF HONOR (Doubleday; October 12; $25.95) is a riveting work of fiction that cleverly conjoins the thrills of armed combat with the intrigue of political conspiracy. At the center of the novel are two compelling characters: Sandy Caine, an Army Special Forces Captain, known as "Hawk" by his devoted "A-Team" of warriors whom he bravely leads on one life-or-death mission after another; and Abigail Mancini, an investigative reporter who, like Sandy, refuses to back away from a conflict, even if it means putting her own life on the line.

Sandy and Abbie are first thrown together in Somalia, when American peace-keeping efforts suddenly turn violent, placing both of them in an Alamo-like situation from which they barely escape. The next time they meet is in Bosnia, where they again find themselves dodging gun-fire. This time, though, they also find themselves passionately drawn to one another.

Undeniably attracted to Sandy, Abbie also detects a dark side that deeply troubles her. She eventually coaxes him to reveal the source of his rage and self-doubt: as the latest in an eight-generation line of Caine men to serve in the military, Sandy has devoted himself to doing his country - and his family name - proud; but his entire career has beenovershadowed by the tarnished reputation of his own father, Alex, whose cowardice in Vietnam - according to eyewitness General Gus Buell - led his"A-team" to be killed.

Sandy is therefore mystified when he meets an Army sergeant who tells him not only that he fought alongside his father, but that Alex was a courageous soldier who risked his own life to save his men. This sergeant promises to tell Sandy more, but is killed in battle, leaving Sandy to wonder what really occurred in Vietnam.

Abbie, as much out of love for Sandy as recognition of the potential for a prize-winning story, decides to help him uncover the truth. As it happens, Sandy's past is strangely linked to another story she is assigned, writing a profile of Jefferson Taylor, a rising star in the U.S. Senate whose commitment to military reform has won him scores of followers and made him a likely presidential candidate. Taylor, it turns out, was also a friend of Sandy's father who survived the Lang Vei battle in which he was killed and remains a close friend of the Caine family.

While Taylor avoids confirming Buell's story about Alex's cowardice, Abbie eventually learns of another survivor of that battle who promises to offer another version of those same events. As she and Sandy try to track him down, they find their own lives, as well as those of anyone whom they've contacted, put into jeopardy. Just when they come close to discovering the truth, they are pursued through the woods of Montana by a team of mercenary killers, whom they are eventually forced to battle in hand-to-hand combat. In the end, they both learn that everything has its price - love, truth, honor - and that sometimes, the price might be one's life.

Hackworth's military experience enables him to craft action sequences that are as riveting as they are authentically rendered and absolutely riveting. But he also shows a talent for deft and nuanced characterization, populating the novel with a diverse array of fully realized, complex male and female characters, none more so than Sandy and Abbie. Propelling the narrative and providing the book with a strong emotional core, the way in which Abbie helps heal Sandy's emotional scars as the two embark on a tender romance makes this that rare thriller that is simultaneously touching and action-packed.

Like a combination of Saving Private Ryan and All the President's Men, THE PRICE OF HONOR expertly intertwines genres to create a novel that is as innovative as it is engrossing. Just as ABOUT FACE highlighted Hackworth's talent for writing military-based autobiography, THE PRICE OF HONOR indicates the arrival of an exciting new voice in fiction.