Nightwalkers (Cam Richter Series) [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

P. T. Deutermann (Author), Dick Hill (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 26, 2009 | Series: Cam Richter Series (Book 4)

Cam Richter, needing a break from his too eventful detective career, is in search of more peaceful pastures in the North Carolina countryside. He buys a seven hundred-acre antebellum plantation, the perfect location for restful solitude, but it doesn’t take long for him to discover that his new locale is not as quiet as he’d hoped. Almost immediately, Cam finds himself caught up in mischievous pranks around his land, the site of a Civil War-era massacre. When the pranks turn hostile, however, he realizes he’s been targeted by a killer who holds him responsible for something Cam is pretty sure he never did. As he tries to find out why someone wants him dead, he begins to uncover the secrets of his plantation and how the land’s tragic history is still tangled up in the present. Cam will need all of his resources, including his redoubtable German shepherd companions, to stay alive as he deals with a determined stalker, some very eccentric people, and all the entanglements of a place suddenly alive with secrets and the fruits of a bloody past.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A cast of eccentric Southern characters, several of whom could have escaped from the pages of Gone with the Wind, lifts Deutermann's winning fourth novel to feature PI Cam Richter (after The Moonpool). Cam, tired of suburban life, is buying Glory's End, a rundown plantation in Rockwell County, N.C. First, he must deal with a modern-day œghost—in cop parlance, someone just released from prison who decides to get revenge on the person who put him in jail. Then it's on to an even deadlier, more mysterious malefactor who's trying to kill him for reasons unknown. Cam's next door neighbors are Valeria Lee and her mother, Hester, who along with their lunatic relative, Maj. Courtney Woodruff Lee, dress and live in a strange antebellum past. The major likes to wear Confederate gray while spending his nights riding horseback around the countryside looking for Yankee spies. Cam's German shepherds, Frick, Frack and Kitty, help propel the action to an electrifying conclusion. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Praise for P.T. Deutermann’s

THE MOONPOOL

“Exciting…Chilling.… Thriller fans will look forward to further entries in this fine series.”—Publishers Weekly

“Richter is an easygoing, likable series hero, and Deutermann has a strong, fluid writing style.… The series is still relatively young, but it’s already proven to be a winner.”—Booklist

  SPIDER MOUNTAIN

“Fast-paced… imaginative plotting.”—Publishers Weekly

 “Another pulse-pounding thrill ride…An unnerving, tightly-woven thriller.”—Cincinatti Library

“The stuff of series heroes...a battle royal.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Non-stop action.”—Mysterylovers.com

“One of the crime genre’s more original and memorable creations…a welcome change from the usual sort of thriller villain.”—Booklist

Praise for

THE CAT DANCERS

“A spellbinding novel of suspense…quite possibly his best.”—Nelson DeMille

HUNTING SEASON

“Explosive tour de force….  The author exceeds his near-perfect Train Man with this ripped-from-the-headlines-plot pitting a middle-aged Rambo with a small but deadly arsenal of spy gadgets against spine-chilling villains, corrupt agency brass and powerful political forces.  Deutermann never sounds a wrong note in this nonstop page-turner.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“You think you have read this before. Trust me. You haven’t. And you should…a great read.”

—Tribune (Greensburg, PA)

“One of the lasting conventions in thriller-writing involves putting the hero in a situation where the reader is forced to ask, ‘How can he possibly get out of that?’…Deutermann…exploits that convention to the hilt in Hunting Season.”—Houston Chronicle

“Enough techno and black ops to satisfy Clancy fans, enough double-dealing, back pedaling internecine treachery to keep Carre fans reading and enough plot turns and suspense to keep Crichton and Higgins Clark devotees guessing.” —The Florida Times-Union

“Deutermann’s previous novel, Train Man, was a marvelous, bang-up action novel…in Hunting Season he equals the thrills…Deutermann writes with authority and inventiveness. Add in top-secret gizmos, heroes meaner than villains…and you’ve got one of the best by one of the best at what he does.” —Telegraph [Macon, GA]

“The tale is loaded with political and bureaucratic skullduggery, and there are plenty of well-banked curves and clever twists.  A solid read from an author whose own tradecraft is every bit as good as that of his characters.”—Booklist

“Deutermann has sold three novels to Hollywood already.  They’re blind if they pass on this one.”—Kirkus Reviews

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD (May 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423336313
• ISBN-13: 978-1423336310
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 1.4 inches
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

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

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deutermann Continues To Deliver Thoughtful Thrillers, June 30, 2009

By 

TMStyles (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nightwalkers: A Novel (Cam Richter Novels) (Hardcover)

P.T. Deutermann continues as a must-read author for me and I am surprised that his work is not more reviewed. His four Cam Richter novels deliver the same well written, engrossing story lines as just about anyone in the suspense/thriller genre today. Certainly Richter as a protagonist is as fun to read, and as intriguing and capable as Dave Robicheux, Jack Reacher, and Doc Ford. And, for animal lovers, Cam is capably assisted in each adventure by his ever present well-trained and loyal German shepherd dogs.

In "Nightwalkers", Cam is still searching for his destiny and place in life. He decides to abandon the city life to buy a 700 hundred acre ante-bellum plantation in his beloved North Carolina countryside. He is quickly introduced to the eccentricities of rural life in a part of the South that still remembers the Civil War as a recent event. His neighbors and potential landlords across the street (The Lee family) seem stuck in the ante-bellum era including costume, manners, and lifestyle. There is a deep back history that includes a Civil War era massacre that occurred on Cam's potential land, a Confederate era scandal involving his new neighbors, and a crazed Lee family member (The Major) who rides the countryside at night hunting Yankee spies.

Cam no sooner begins to settle in while digesting all this Old South vs. New South conflict when he finds himself exposed to a series of pranks and threats of violence from a mystery person who wants him dead for unknown reasons. Initially he thinks he has acquired a "ghost", a term for a released prisoner who becomes a revenge seeking stalker; however, the threat of violence soon heats up until the past and the present catch up with Cam as he decides whether to pursue the bucolic life the plantation offers or to return to the city--a decision that must wait until he sorts through the craziness surrounding his land, discovers his stalker, and decides on his feelings for a new woman in his life.

As usual, Deutermann's novel is tightly plotted, exciting, fast-paced, and filled with challenging mysteries. While his very able canine helpers, Frick, Frack, and now Kitty are ever present, their roles are more subdued in this installment; nonetheless, the interaction between Cam and his canine companions is something to enjoy and marvel. For those who have not discovered P.T Deutermann or his signature character, Cam Richter, I highly recommend this great series.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewing: "Nightwalkers: A Novel" by P. T. Deutermann, July 19, 2009

By 

Kevin Tipple (Plano, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Nightwalkers: A Novel (Cam Richter Novels) (Hardcover)

It began with "The Cat Dancers" and now in this fourth book, Cam Richter needs a break. "Hide and Seek Investigations" is doing well and the events of "The Moonpool" case are finally beginning to fade somewhat. Cam is tired of living in Triboro and tired of the tedium of the usual cases the company has going. Unlike Sharon McCone in "Burn Out" (written by Marcia Muller) he isn't depressed or anything like that. Cam Richter has always done best when he has had a challenge and these days he needs a new challenge and a change of scenery.

He may have found both with his purchase of "Glory's End." A sprawling antebellum plantation of 700 acres located on the banks of the Dan River in North Carolina that also happens to be home to a Civil War massacre. History that hasn't ever changed for some of his neighbors and is just as powerful today as then. Their ways are very strange to Cam and he has to adjust to their expectations as well as changing a few of his own.

Cam has another problem that takes a higher priority over the home renovation project. Renovation of the plantation home could take years. He won't have that time if ex-con Billie Ray Breen follows through on his often made threats to get even. Billie Ray Breen unfortunately survived the shoot out with Cam years ago and the nasty piece of work is getting early release from prison.

Before long, "Glory's End" becomes the site of a psychological and occasional shooting war as Cam deals with the past in more ways than one. Vendettas are an age old theme of the human race and its literature and that idea is worked well here.

This fourth in the series sheds little new light on the Cam Richter character or for that matter any of his team from "Hide and Seek Investigations." Instead, much like what James Lee Burke often does in his Dave Robicheaux novels, the primary focus is on the past. The past becomes a character in its own right and that certainly is true here. "Glory's End" officially established in 1838 has had a long and storied history as has the surrounding North Carolina and Virginia countryside. There is literally blood in the land and the land still draws blood in this modern age. Deutermann brings that Civil War past to life and pays homage to it while at the same time not celebrating the heinous aspects of it.

Along the way, he populates the book with a complex mystery that is obvious only in a couple of spots, plenty of action and intrigue, along with fully formed realistic characters engaged in their lives. The result is another very good book in a series that one hopes is not ending but branching off into a new direction for Cam and his dogs.

Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2009

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cam wins again, June 29, 2009

By 

James J. Sherin "action lover" (Greensburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nightwalkers: A Novel (Cam Richter Novels) (Hardcover)

Pete Deutermann again delivers a mystery story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The solution of the mytery proceeds like the unpealing of an onion until the last 10 or so pages when the kernel of the mystery is revealed.

I've read all od P.T. Deutermann's books and they continue to uphold the quality found in the beginning novels in terms of structure and story!