As a big fan of the Lifetime series “Army Wives,” I bought Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wives because the idea for the series was supposedly based on characters within the book, and to a certain extent, it is. Fortunately for those of us who like the series, however, the events in the series do not necessarily parallel those in the book…
Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wives has an almost documentary feel to it, and you don’t find yourself as drawn into the characters, I think perhaps because, in the writer’s attempt to share so many lives, you loose the intimacy and the sheer depth of hearing one or perhaps two stories.
The plot is also somewhat veiled and confusing…on the one hand, the writer is presenting a series of murders at the military installation, and on the other, details of the lives of four army wives, only one of which is related to the murders.
With respect to the television series, the Holdens, the Sherwoods, the LeBlancs, and the Morans are clearly recognizable, as are some of the events from the book carried into the plotline of the hit television series, however, if you’re a fan of the series, the book is definitely not a must read. It’s more a nice diversion… on a scale of one to ten, this one’s a seven.
