Darkside: A Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

P. T. Deutermann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 2003

At the US Naval Academy, the students refer to the administration as the Darkside, a nickname befitting the secrecy and manipulation that occur behind closed office doors. So when a first-year student falls to his death from a campus building, the Academy tenses as the Darkside begins to creep out of the shadows to cut off any potential scandal.

Retired naval aviator Ev Markham is now a professor at the Academy. When a provocative clue connects the dead student to senior midshipman Julie Markham, Ev knows how quickly his daughter could become the easy scapegoat the Darkside badly craves. But a second body convinces Academy security chief Jim Hall that a killer is on the loose. As both men struggle to uncover the truth, a psychopath more sinister than they can imagine lies in wait, protecting the ultimate-and most deadly-secret of all...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This gripping mystery by the author of Hunting Season offers a memorable-if slightly improbable-account of some creepy goings-on at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. As the book opens, the school is buzzing with the news that a plebe has plummeted from a sixth-story window and died. Amid questions of suicide, a new twist emerges: the plebe was wearing a pair of panties belonging to Midshipman First Class Julie Markham, a perky senior at the academy and an acquaintance of the dead plebe, who then gets drawn into the investigation. Her father, a retired former fighter pilot and academy history professor, hires crack defense lawyer Liz DeWinter, fearing that Markham will somehow be scapegoated by the Navy Criminal Investigation Service as officers try to hush up scandal and save their own careers. Meanwhile, academy security chief Jim Hall begins probing the case on his own. After another death, it looks like there's a killer on the loose; some wild, murderous chases ensue in the academy's underground tunnels, while sparks fly between DeWinter and Markham's widower father. Veteran mystery novelist Deutermann, a graduate of the naval academy and retired captain, paints a detailed picture of the lives of midshipmen-including their rigorous education, strict honor code and suspicion of officers (referred to collectively as the "Dark Side")-as well as the inner workings of navy bureaucracy; the smart characters and deft plotting make up for some minor inconsistencies. Readers with navy backgrounds will naturally gravitate toward Deutermann's latest, but other mystery fans will find the story thoroughly absorbing as well.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Gripping...thoroughly absorbing." -Publishers Weekly

"Deutermann...writes page-turners. And this one has a surprise ending-one that comes as a bombshell." -Houston Chronicle

"A dead-on sense of place and appealing characters in tight corners...satisfying." -Kirkus Reviews

"Deutermann has now published seven pounding-pulsers. For this book, he was back at Dahlgren and Mahan, updating his reef points."-Baltimore Sun

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; 1st edition (October 19, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031298636X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312986360
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #950,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter T. Deutermann
(P.T. Deutermann)


Peter Deutermann was born in Boston in 1941. His father was in the Navy, so he subsequently lived all over the United States and also in Argentina. He graduated from the naval academy in 1963 and served in the navy for 26 years, rising to the rank of Captain. While in the navy, he published one textbook on naval operations and several professional articles in navy-oriented journals. He held three commands: a Swiftboat in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, a guided missile destroyer in the Atlantic Fleet, and a destroyer squadron based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. His last tour of duty was as the division director for chemical, biological, and radiological weapons arms control negotiations on the staff of the Joint Chiefs in Washington, DC.
He retired from active duty in 1989 and began his fiction-writing career. He has published fourteen novels since 1992, all with St. Martins Press, including the just-released World War II navy novel, entitled Pacific Glory. He is currently working on his next book, a thriller set at the historic mountain fortress of Masada in Israel.
In addition to a BS in naval engineering, Mr. Deutermann holds an MA in public administration from the University of Washington. He is also a Member of the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. He is married and has two children. Mr. Deutermann and his wife of 42 years live in Rockingham County, in the Piedmont of North Carolina, on their family pony farm.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good thriller is buried within all that fluff, March 31, 2005

By 

Michael in Helena, Alabama "Michael" (Helena, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Darkside: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

First of all - Darkside, even more than Deutermann's other books, requires a good understanding of Naval and military jargon. Unless you already know what a "reefer" is (no it's not marijuana) and you know what an OOD is, and many other slang terms, you may get lost in this book and give up on it.

And that's unfortunate, because it IS a good book, although it's about twice as long as it really needs to be. The theme is unique and plausible, and the action, once it FINALLY gets moving, is pretty intense.

If you can stick with it, you'll be pleased with this Deutermann book. It just seems like the author said to himself "Well, Tom Clancy can write ridiculously long novels, why can't I"?

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DARKSIDE IS A TOUR de FORCE, December 9, 2002

By 

Chris Suerdieck (Mattoon, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Darkside: A Novel (Hardcover)

Several years ago I picked up an book on a remainder table called SCORPION OF THE SEA by an unknown author named P T Deutermann. By the time I was finished with that book I was wishing he'd write more! He has and every book just keeps getting better.

Deutermann writes around a military theme, but not necessarily all military stories. He has stayed away from the improbable scenarios and whizzo-high tech that other writers of like minded fiction have fallen into. His stories always feature solid characters, believable dialogue and compelling action. He has an uncanny ear for dialogue and excellant characterizations.

With DARDSIDE, he has surpassed himself, crafting a story that is multi-layered with the Naval Academy as a backdrop. The life of a midshipman comes to life on these pages, as well as a whole host of other characters.

Deutermann assumes his readers have enough working knowledge of the subject matter that he doesn't litter the narrative with asides to define and explain every military term or bit of jargon he uses, yet he doesn't overwhelm with it. If you never knew what a "bitter end" was, the story wouldn't suffer because of it.

Until this book, I thought EDGE OF HONOR was his masterpiece, now I would say it's a dead even tie, although he revisits a lot of the themes about Honor and Duty in this story.

Highly recommended, the best book of 2002 by far!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good story, but with a long, slow middle, June 11, 2003

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Darkside: A Novel (Hardcover)

"Darkside" is an interesting story, with likeable characters, a few surprising plot twists, a good measure of tension, and the attractive setting of the United States Naval Academy. Unfortunately, while the story gets off to a good start, it's weighed down by a long middle section in which little progress seems to be made in solving the murder mystery, which is, of course, the point of the story. Instead, this central part (about half the book, in fact) is full of character development (not in itself bad) and a lot of discussion of the hothouse environment of Academy life. For people like me who are interested in questions of military education, this section has certain rewards. However, for people who are mainly interested in a murder mystery regardless of setting, these 200 pages would probably be somewhat of a drag.

About page 300, though, the plot picks up its pace, and keeps charging ahead with action and revelation right up to the very last page. Readers interested in a fast-moving, dramatic showdown might even find it worthwhile to skim the book until chapter 12, and then dive in there in earnest. You'd miss some of the plot threads that get tied up in the end, but you'd skip all the slow parts too.

It's hard to tell whether the author is trying to make a political point about some of the people who are being admitted to the Academy these days. Without giving away much of the plot, I'll note that questions like "How could someone like this make it into Annapolis?" are raised, by the characters themselves, throughout the story. By intention or oversight, Deutermann seems to leave this question largely unanswered -- and indeed, makes it more pressing than ever given some of the final plot twists.

But that issue is no doubt secondary to the quality of the story itself. I did like several of the characters here, and thought the setting believable, the story plausible, and the action, tension, and pacing (at least in the final section) brisk. General mystery fans could probably enjoy this as much if it were 100 pages shorter, but those of us who like reading about military academies will find the whole thing worth the read.