The Officers’ Club by Ralph Peters gets another starred review in this month’s issue of Library Journal.
Below is the full review or you can read this and others on Library Journal’s website.
The Officers’ Club: In 1981 at Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona, several young intelligence officers spend their off-duty hours in pursuit of no-strings-attached sex. Why then do these presumably carefree affairs lead to murder? The victim is First Lt. Jessie Lamoureaux, a gorgeous but “reptilian” seductress. Lt. Roy Banks, who narrates the tale and is himself having an affair with a married female officer, had resisted Jessie’s wiles, but other officers were less fortunate. He knows at least four casualties left in her wake. But Jessie, whose past, like Roy’s, is mysterious, also had connections to Mexican drug bosses and plenty of discarded civilian lovers. Anchored by his friendship with a fellow jazz fan, a gay man who owns a music store in nearby Bisbee, and by his respect for the army, Roy lets us see with gripping and convincing detail the “sexual vandalism” that had turned the intelligence school into a “Peyton Place without the moral restraint.” VERDICT Peters, a strategic analyst for Fox News and author of The War After Armageddon and over 20 other books, offers an absorbing and finely crafted portrayal of complex characters whose intertwining relationships come apart under the strain of differing expectations. In the tradition of James Jones, Norman Mailer, and Nelson DeMille.—Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson
What others are saying about The Officers’ Club by Ralph Peters:
“The murder of 1st Lt. Jessica Lamoureux at Arizona’s Fort Huachuca kick-starts Peters’s excellent mystery thriller… Peters (The War After Armageddon) shows he can explore the conundrums of love and the battlefield of the human heart as successfully as he navigates international military strategy and tactics.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Peters mixes a time and place rich with storytelling potential, vividly drawn and multidimensional characters, murder, sex, deception, and rival drug gangs into a superior crime novel… It’s likely that Peters, who writes nonfiction on military affairs as well as novels, is writing about a place and time he really knows, and the result is a hugely entertaining tale.”
Booklist (starred review)
“Part murder mystery, part character study, totally entertaining. Peters has created a character worthy of a sequel.”
Kirkus Reviews
The Officers’ Club by Ralph Peters will be in stores soon, publishing January 18th, 2011.
“McGoran (Body Trace and two other Madison Cross mysteries under his D.H. Dublin pseudonym) impressively integrates concerns about genetically modified produce with an action-filled storyline and fleshed-out characters.”McGoran (Body Trace and two other Madison Cross mysteries under his D.H. Dublin pseudonym) impressively integrates concerns about genetically modified produce with an action-filled storyline and fleshed-out characters. Det. Doyle Carrick of the Philadelphia PD, suspended after putting a gun to a drug dealer’s head to coerce information, uses his mandatory vacation to take residence in the house he’s inherited from his recently deceased parents in the rural community of Dunston, Pa. At a Dunston diner, he steps in to save organic farmer Nola Watkins from a creep who grabs her by the wrist. Watkins has also been receiving hang-up calls, which may be related to efforts by real-estate developers to buy out most of the local land owners. Watkins’s refusal to sell may have ticked off those who have already cut deals and who perhaps fear that she will ruin their sales. The disturbing, but scientifically plausible, secret at the heart of the bad guys’ schemes is an original one, and McGoran makes the most of it. Agent: Stacia Decker, Donald Maass Literary Agency. (July)
