In a 2010 FBI investigation, striking similarities were noted between a real-life case and DeMille's book.[3]
Plot
The novel's hero is U.S Air Force Colonel Sam Hollis, a former F-4 PhantomFighter pilot[4] who fought in Vietnam. Hollis was shot down during the war[5] and was disqualified from flying. Later on he was transferred to US Air Force Intelligence and served as an intelligence officer and air attaché at the American embassy in Moscow. A young American MBA graduate driving in the Russian countryside encounters another American, claiming to have escaped a secret Russian POW camp—leaving numerous others behind who are still captive and being used to "Americanize" Soviet spies. When the information reaches Hollis, he begins to investigate and discovers a secret[which?] so dangerous that it might cost him his life.
^Nelson DeMille, The Charm School, Warner Books, 1988, page 67: "There were times when he wished he were in his old F-4 Phantom with nothing more to worry about than MiGs and missiles converging on his radar screen".
^Nelson DeMille, The Charm School, Warner Books, 1988, page 110: "I spent four years at the Air Force Academy. I graduated and went on to fighter school. I did a tour in 'Nam in 1968, then another in 1972. That's when i was shot down over Haiphong".
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