Customer Reviews

Darkside

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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"?

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!

"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.

The author of several excellent military-themed thrillers, Deutermann's strong suit by far is exploring the Byzantine world of service politics. His first novel, the excellent "Scorpion in the Sea", followed a destroyer skipper's growing suspicions that something is amiss in the otherwise placid waters of Florida's Atlantic coast. "Scorpion" was painted against a backdrop of shorebound politics and maneuvering, which no doubt had career officers nodding along knowingly, and established a recurrent theme in his novels: a determined investigator (with a beautiful and conveniently unattached female sidekick) who doggedly pursues the truth when the higher-ups have decided upon a "correct" answer. The determined investigator is usually hard-bitten but able, and on the outs with the brass for one thing or another - in other words, he has yet to come up with a protagonist that could not be convincingly played by Bruce Willis in the film version. In his latest, "Darkside", Deutermann returns to his own service's most politically-charged body and the home base of the naval Establishment, the U.S. Naval Academy. Novels by Academy grads tend to take on one of two forms: thinly-disguised autobiographies, or "the place has gone to hell" morality tales about how much tougher Academies were in the pre-Clinton era and how corrupt and atrophied they are today. Deutermann, however, combines his considerable narrative talents with his acute observation skills to people his Academy with thoroughly believable characters and surprisingly thoughtful ruminations about how, though the Academy has indeed changed since his day, it has not all been change for better or worse - simply evolutionary change. He displays as thorough an understanding of the 21st Century Academy's culture, and especially the midshipman mentality, as if he'd graduated yesterday, from the changes wrought by Washington's social engineering to the Brigade's somewhat schitzophrenic relationship with their equally intelligent but thoroughly counterculture next-door neighbors at St. John's College. Unlike most murder-mysteries, Deutermann seems to dislike keeping his perp out of the picture until the last chapter, which takes the edge somewhat out of the mystery, but the whodunit? angle is still considerable. The protagonist, security officer Jim Hall, fits his formula precisely, along with his Beautiful Sidekick, so readers might get more out of the novel if they haven't read his previous works. That being said, the novel is far from staid or predictable, and is a highly recommended read.

Pete Deutermann is one of the few authors that I'll buy in hardback without even reading the dust jacket first - he's that good. His latest, Darkside, is one of his most gripping to date. I don't want to give away any of the story line so let's just say that one of the plot developments was wholly unexpected. It's a nice change to read a military who-done-it by someone who actually served in uniform and knows the environment, the slang, etc., although Deutermann has made his mark in writing great mysteries in non-military settings as well.

P T DEUTERMANN has now est. himself as one of the best fiction
writers, in not only this country, but in the world today. His
new book DARKSIDE,will keep you up all night. I thought he could
not surpass HUNTING SEASON, but he has proved us all wrong.Its
not as if he has written only one or two good books,all his novels, are 5+, this author is the best kept secret in America.
but the word is getting out,as his last book HUNTING SEASON,was
a big seller.please tell your friends,if its mystery,thrills,
and suspense,and great writing,with solid characters,and superb
plotting, DARKSIDE, is one of a kind for this Christmas season.
i'm so sold i'm buying, a number of them for christmas gifts.
You can read the review from publishers weekly,if you want to know more about the story, i'm not giving away anything.
thanks P T DEUTERMANN!!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!

This work of fiction starts out with great promise and the reader is rapidly sucked into the story. It is unfortunate that this disappears after the first 100 paqes of this work. The reader is then given a dissertationon procedural intracacies of the Naval Academy and the unique structures that are beneath the School. I felt as if I were reading a travel guide on the History of Annapolis rather than what was supposed to have been a well written thriller. It is unfortunate that the writer carries on this useless drivel for almost 250 pages. The book picks up speed rapidly in the final 75 pages with some very interestig twists being found to exist. It is unfortunate that their is too little that comes about and is far too late. The characters are poorly developed with lttle depth being found to exist. This is fair, at best, and can be quite tedious reading.

This was my first exposure to P.T. Deutermann's work, and it was an enjoyable one. The traits of a good mystery are: an inventive plot, well orchestrated; interesting characters, a strong sense of place in keeping with the story, and a well developed sense of pacing.

Having attended the Naval Academy myself, I can tell you he has the place nailed - I could feel Mother B. around me as I read. There were no Goth Johnnies back then, but Deutermann makes the idea seem in keeping. He's worked a murder into the most unlikely of environments, and he did it most believably. If I have a gripe, it's that he falls prey to the tendency to make cliches of his military and police characters, but that's a minor quibble in such a page-turner. Good job, P.T. This puts you on the Supt's list.

The details about the Academy and Annapolis are interesting. The military side is OK.

The big issue is using "Goths" as uber-evil super criminals. While a few might be somewhere maybe, most Goths are simply kids who like a certain style of music and fashion. The motivation of the two at the Academy make no sense at all. The main criminal in this mystery is so superior in ability and intelligence to everyone else that one wonders why he would take up a career of mainly stupid pranks when he could be the next Sect. of the Navy or Bill Gates.

This story started off well. It was interesting and captivating most of the way through but got very slow in parts. The author's description of sexual things seemed a little bit like middle school mentality and made those sections akward. I enjoyed the book all the way until the ending started unfolding. All this build up, all this development and then a big let down. I would recommend reading the whole thing then going back just a bit and imagining your own ending.