In Japanese POW camps in World War II, American airmen were designated as “special prisoners,” but the title of Jim Lehrer’s novel The Special Prisoner (Random House) refers to septuagenarian Bishop John Quincy Watson of San Antonio. Fifty years after he endured a horrific imprisonment in Camp Sengei 4, Watson encounters a person in the DFW Airport he believes is the Hyena, the camp’s chief interrogator and tormentor. His confrontation with the man—a successful Tokyo banker—touches off an intensely emotional drama. The Special Prisoner is edge-of-the-seat exciting, an extraordinary piece of fiction.
