I read this book several years ago, shortly after its publication. Fortunately, I was able to get it from a local library instead of having to buy it. The author gets most of the historical facts about World War II in Philippines right, but that's why I read actual history and biography rather than a fictionalized versions. A historical novelist should illuminate the past and enhance the experience of living through it by showing its impact on vivid, flesh-and-blood characters. Unfortunately, the caricatures who inhabit "America's Best" are so flat, so lifeless, so predictable that describing them as two-dimensional is a charitable exaggeration. One ceases to care about them because they are so obviously contrived.
I note that Sinclair Browning has written a number of mystery novels that have won a following, and I trust she is a diligent writer and a fine human being. But someone should have told her to take the manuscript of "America's Best" back to the woodshed and subject it to some careful scrutiny, thought, and extensive rewriting. As it stands, even a one-star rating is too high, but Amazon.com won't allow a lower mark. Really, this book is not worth your time.