The Rule of Thirds by Jeannée Sacken
The Rule of Thirds (Ten16 Press), written by former English professor, and now photojournalist, Jeannée Sacken, is a powerful novel that places the reader right into the center of a real international news story. The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 is the story of the decade and one that experienced photojournalist, Annie Hawkins Green, is not about to miss documenting along with the rest of her crew.
But it’s not an easy decision for Annie to make to return to Afghanistan. She has been suffering from PTSD since her last time there and still struggles with its effects — but she is determined to cover this story. When Annie’s twenty-two year-old-daughter, Mel, fresh out of college, takes a job against her mom’s wishes, as a production assistant with another news outfit heading to Afghanistan to cover the same story, Annie finds another reason to go … so she can keep an eye on her daughter.
Fast-Paced, Multifaceted, With Grains of Truth
While this is a novel, it’s also a gripping real-life story of war and terrorism, death and survival. The author says in her author’s note at the end of the book, “The main characters … are strictly fictional. Several secondary characters, however, are based on real people … Annie’s interactions with them are based on televised interviews they gave and on my imagination.”
The story moves with a fast pace and Sacken’s writing is descriptive and emotional, pulling you into the story and not letting you go until the very last sentence. At times I was holding my breath as the danger felt so real. The situations the characters were faced with were life and death, and, as the reader, you feel that. I had to stay up late several nights just to keep reading this riveting story.
The book also follows the relationships Annie has in her life, including her daughter (with typical mother-daughter conflict … the young adult daughter trying to break away from her mom and Mom trying to hold on!), her longtime love (Admiral Finn Cerelli) who is right in the thick of it with her, her ex-husband and his new wife, her news crew and others she became close to in Afghanistan over the years.
An Overlooked Aspect of Military Life
I personally really appreciated the look behind the “curtain” of military life. And while we often think about the soldiers and other military personnel who serve and fight to protect us, we don’t always think about the news reporters and photographers who regularly risk their lives as well to tell the stories of those around the world affected by war, terrorism, torture, and other atrocities. We don’t always fully recognize the physical but also emotional scars that they carry in order to tell these stories.
While a stand-alone novel, The Rule of Thirds is the 3rd book in Sacken’s series. Behind the Lens introduces the character of Annie Hawkins Green and her experiences in Afghanistan, and Double Exposure follows Annie as she returns to the country to cover peace talks between the government and the Taliban. All would make for a compelling and gripping film or streaming series!
A former English professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, Jeannée Sacken is now a photojournalist who travels the world, documenting the lives of women and children. She also photographs wildlife and is deeply committed to the conservation of endangered species. When not traveling, she lives with her husband and three cats in Shorewood, Wisconsin, where she’s hard at work on her next novel. Follow Jeannée at jeanneesacken.com.
