I found this book in a box in our church's attic. Because the famous Iran-Contra hearings happened at a time in my life when I was pretty culturally and politically clueless, this was one of those 'what was that all about anyway?' memories from my younger days. I cracked the book open, sitting in my home office one night, and could not put it down. Immediately I was hooked. Meyer starts at the end, with the intense questioning by the Congressional committee of Lt. Colonel North. The stage is set well and the reader is drawn into the story by the suspense left after chapter 1. He then goes back to describe, in well documented but very accessible language, North's birth, early childhood and school days.
The story of North's life is one of adventure, setback, triumph, determination and more. I was personally amazed at many of his exploits. After finishing the first (and most difficult!) year of Annapolis Naval Academy, he was in a tragic car accident that almost left him unable to walk. Being told he would never return to the academy, a few months later he re-entered as a plebe and graduated a year behind his original class! A driven man, North once used his leave time to go (not home or on vacation!) Army Airborne School to become jump qualified. He did it again and went to a Survival School during a leave time when everyone else was going to get some R&R! Who does that?!
Meyer transitions to North's deployment to Vietnam and takes a few chapters to chronicle his fearless fighting that earned him both a Silver and Bronze Star. North was a natural leader, seemingly blind to all danger and yet never foolish, never prone to put his troops in unnecessary danger.
North continues to climb the ranks of promotion as he returns from the war and becomes a training officer both at Quantico, VA and at the Northern Training Area in Okinawa. He moves into the dreaded desk job at Marine Corps HQs and ultimately lands at the NSC, working for President Reagan. Meyer work to lay out the primary players (Sandinistas, Contras, Iranians, Secord, Poindexter, Hasenfus, etc) is excellent. Easy to follow but well detailed. All the bases are covered in how exactly the Contra to Iran to arms to hostages story all unfolded and ultimately blew up.

I highly recommend this book. One disappointment for me: I thought Meyer was going to come full circle and actually cover the exchange between North, his lawyer and the congressional investigation committee. He didn't. The book is still well worth the read, but you'll have to read something else to get the trial information.