Black Elephant

 The Watchman of Saigon, part 1 (Black Elephant) is a wartime mystery related by Tom Cassidy, an American reporter investigating corruption in an aid program to the French in Indochina. The story begins with the murder of a Vietnamese wheeler-dealer, a death Cassidy will not walk away from. (Note: The Watchman of Saigon, available for the first time, provided material for my novel The Girl from Perfume River, though this story is set at the time of John F. Kennedy's only visit to Vietnam.)