A new novel · Coming November 24, 2026
A new novel · Coming November 24, 2026
27 Knots
“Deserves a place of honor between Sophie’s Choice and The Things They Carried . . . a masterpiece.”
Twenty-seven knots in the tiny silk ribbons of his Riverine beret. Each one a memory that won’t stay buried.
Now available for pre-order at major online retailers and through your local bookstore.
The Story
Along with seven others singled out by the US Navy in 1969, Vance Leford patrolled Vietnam’s Mekong Delta on a napalm boat as part of the Mobile Riverine Force. Trained as a sniper, Leford’s mission was to destroy key Viet Cong operatives in the jungle that lined the Mekong’s shores. Leford was damn good at his job, too. He’s got twenty-seven knots in his Riverine beret to prove it, each one commemorating an assassination that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
Fifty years later, lured to Washington, DC, for the funeral of a fellow Riverine, Leford is reunited with the only two survivors from his boat crew, men who once were like brothers to him but who also know his darkest secret. Now he believes one of them is about to reveal an atrocity that could destroy the fragile peace he has found, as well as the wife and family Leford has created from the ashes of loss.
As a man hard-wired to survive, Leford won’t go down easily. Only this time, staying alive will cost him whatever humanity he has left.
Praise for 27 Knots
“An intense portrait of the men who, willingly and unwillingly, executed their duties at the expense of their souls.”
“This is a war novel, yes, but measured on a human scale, about how we go on living and trying to love in the wake of hard choices and moral conundrums. Compelling, fierce and all too bittersweet.”
“27 Knots lays bare the kind of terrible secret that lies deep within the memories of so many veterans of war . . . I cannot recommend this book more highly.”
“The year’s best war story! . . . A heartbreaking tale of ‘profound love and appalling violence.’”
The Shitshow Observed
Essays on aging — mortality, grief, old dogs, regrettable choices, and the absurdist dilemma of tooth whitening at age seventy. Free, and the first place to hear 27 Knots news.
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