Former US tunnel rat Richard Trenor - disfigured in the war, but left with strange gifts as a result - is summoned back to Vietnam by Thanh, the son of an old friend, to find the man who killed Thanh's eight-year-old sister. Trenor's quest for justice will not only cause him to cross paths with two other Americans - one a cold-blooded assassin, the other a bloodthirsty madman - but also a tormented ghost, and an infestation of living evil. Spanning fifty years, The American is a gritty crime thriller laced with the supernatural, set in a vividly rendered Vietnam.