Official Privilege begins with a mystery: in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, the mummified body of a black Navy lieutenant is found bolted inside the boiler of a deactivated battleship. While the cause of death is clear, the officer's identity is not. With nerve ends raw from the media focus on recent scandals, the Pentagon bypasses its own investigative service and appoints a commander, Dan Collins, and a civilian, Grace Snow, to conduct an inquiry. Together they resolve to ignore the Navy's political sensitivities and conduct a by-the-book murder investigation. But then they uncover evidence that points back to Washington, D.C., and a two-year-old unsolved case involving another black Navy lieutenant, a beautiful young woman, who died under violent circumstances. While they search for links between the two deaths, they attract the attention of one Malachi Ward. Cunning, ruthless, well paid, and ferociously resourceful, he will do whatever it takes to protect his hidden client's privilege. In a tense, deadly game of cat-and-mouse, Malachi tracks Collins and Snow through Washington's streets and corridors of power, determined to keep them from learning the secret behind the body in the battleship.
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.
