Both “Red Flags” and “Play the Red Queen” are mysteries about murders that take place in the midst of war. Juris was well aware of the paradox: “Because really what war is is this lawless state. For all the talk about the laws of war, the only law there is is your right to kill somebody legally and your right to survive. Almost everything seems permissible under that heading. Everything is unleashed once a state of war comes into being.” He also knew what having lived in that lawless state meant for returning veterans: “The elevation of such aggression and violence with pomp and admiration is what I find so odd. We honor them perhaps to make ourselves less guilty about what they’ve done for us in sacrificing themselves to the consequences of their acts. Maybe truly honoring them might be accepting that war makes wrecks of its victims and victors.”