Hostage to Death

Running off to join the French Foreign Legion used to be every boy's dream of action and adventure. But for Lieutenant Bill Reilly—half Irish, half American, and like Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, a Westerner at war in the desert—the dream has turned into a nightmare. And it all begins with the gruesome delivery of a severed hand. . . .

The dead, gnarled fingers hold a message from the Berber chief Abd el-Ulad. He challenges the courage of the Legion soldiers and says he holds an Amer...