The Officers' Club

by Peters, Ralph

• ISBN13: 9780765365538
• ISBN10: 0765365537
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-08-30
• Publisher: Tor Books

Summary

Spring, 1981. Vietnam is over, but the repercussions linger. The military strives to recover as society reels from the excesses of the 1970s¿ A sinister beauty and a dutiful soldier¿ a Hollywood lawyer running from a dirty past and a cast-off vet who seems to have no future¿ dueling drug gangs along the Mexican border¿ and the mutilated remains of a female lieutenant. Stunning, promiscuous, and brilliant at spotting the weaknesses in others, Jessie Lamoureaux may have been killed by a jealous lover, a drug smuggler - or a ghost from a life she hoped she had left behind. Was her murderer the Green Beret she betrayed? The captain whose marriage she shattered? The senior officer hoping to save her from herself? A female sergeant fighting for dignity in a man¿s world? Or a fellow lieutenant with a secret of his own? In this gritty tale of young men and women torn between the laws of the land and the laws of the heart, a dark journey leads from a moonlit beach in Mexico to mayhem in Iran - then back to a country looking for its soul. The Officers¿ Club captures the passions and confusion of the times, the reckoning due after a decade of indulgence - and the commitment of those who stayed in uniform through the bad years. As the military and society struggle to right themselves, their conflicts are embodied in the question: Who killed Lieutenant Jessie Lamoureux?

Author Biography

Ralph Peters is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former enlisted man, a controversial strategist and veteran of the intelligence world; a bestselling, prize-winning novelist; a journalist who has covered multiple conflicts and appears frequently in the broadcast media; and a lifelong traveler with experience in over seventy countries on six continents. A widely read columnist, Ralph Peters' journalism has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines and web-zines, including The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Harpers, and Armchair General Magazine. His books include The War After Armageddon, Endless War, and Red Army. Peters grew up in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, and studied writing at Pennsylvania State University. He lives and writes in the Washington, D.C. area.

Table of Contents

(Starred Review) "An absorbing and finely crafted portrayal of complex characters...In the tradition of James Jones, Norman Mailer and Nelson DeMille."
--Library Journal

"The Officers’ Club is a perfect invocation of America and the post-Vietnam Army trying to repair its heart and soul in the aftermath of a long, disastrous war.  For those of us who were there, as well as for those who were not, this is a must read; a remembrance of things we’d rather forget, and a reminder that history is prologue to the future.  Peters writes with wit and style, his dialogue is as crisp and fresh as a newly-pressed uniform.  An outstanding novel of mystery, seduction, sex, betrayal, and murder."
--Nelson DeMille, New York Times bestselling author of The Lion

"Ralph Peters knows the people and culture of the modern military as well as any living writer; truthfully, no one writes them better.  Peters is the gold standard which the rest of us are measured against."
--Stephen Coonts, New York Times bestselling author of The Assassin 

 

"With The Officers' Club, Ralph Peters elegantly proves that America's military forces are staffed with flesh and blood human beings, people for all their trials and tribulations who are dedicated not only to their country, but to each other.  Brothers and sisters, in arms, all facing the same enemy which is sometimes themselves.   Peters has written a real story about real people, and he's nailed it solid.  I couldn't put it down.  Hats off!"

--David Hagberg, New York Times bestselling author of The Expediter