When his recon platoon lands on a Mogadishu beach under the glare of hundreds of news cameras, Lieutenant Gavin Kelly knows that his mission of mercy -- Operation Restore Hope -- is going to be anything but by the book. His doubts prove true after one of his men kills an armed Somali who may have been a newsperson's bodyguard, touching off an international incident that has the press corps howling, his Marine superiors evading, and his men losing faith in their cause, their honor, and their lieutenant. Through a morass of death, decay, and political lies, the slowly disintegrating platoon descends into the lawless, violent underbelly of Somalia -- where Kelly must finally confront his values, loyalties, and his own soul in a land where murder is a way of life.... <P> With heart-pounding action, intricate military detail and rapier wit, Owen West has written a gritty, modern war novel that speaks to the violence lurking within us all -- and the lengths to which we will go to control it.