Zero Option [Hardcover]

Peter T. Deutermann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1998

Military investigator David Stafford receives a low profile assignment: a scam involving public auctions of military surplus. When he travels from Washington, D.C. to a base outside Atlanta, Stafford stumbles onto a big secret. A cylinder of Wet Eye, a hazardous biochemical weapon with gruesome consequences, is missing, maybe stolen.

But no one will admit it's gone.

As he hunts for answers, Stafford befriends an unusual, troubled young girl and her guardian, who live in a remote Georgia mountain town. What the gift knows and how she carne by that knowledge traps Stafford between an unstable weapon with deadly power and a military bureaucracy desperate to cover its mistakes, no matter what the cost.

Authentic, frightening, packed with suspense, Zero Option is P.T. Deutermann's best book yet.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

P.T. Deutermann's latest is a topnotch topical thriller bursting with the expected expertise and insider knowledge he picked up as a Navy captain and arms control specialist. It's also something else: an unexpectedly resonant portrait of people, good and bad, who have been chewed up and spit out by military bureaucracies. Both the hero (an unlucky military investigator named David Stafford, whose career has been short-circuited by whistle-blowing and whose personal life is a disaster area) and the heavy (a career Army bean counter and petty thief, Wendell Carson, who suddenly gets the chance to move up and almost blows it at every occasion) are carefully drawn and fully credible. So are the underlings, officers and FBI agents who thread through their lives. This becomes especially important when Stafford--trying to track down a container of deadly biological nerve gas that Carson has stolen from an Army base in Georgia--crosses paths with a young girl who seems to have psychic powers. In less skilled hands, this kind of rogue element could send a vehicle skittering. But Deutermann quickly gives the girl and her keepers (a mysteriously intriguing woman teacher, a protective small-town policeman) such a strong presence that they become vital to the story's exciting and moving conclusion. Other of his excellent thrillers available in paperback include The Edge of Honor, Official Privilege, Scorpion in the Sea, and Sweepers. --Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly

Deutermann's latest (after Sweepers) is a topnotch topical thriller bursting with the expected expertise and insider knowledge he picked up as a Navy captain and arms control specialist. It's also something else: an unexpectedly resonant portrait of people, good and bad, who have been chewed up and spit out by military and government bureaucracies. Both the hero (an unlucky military investigator named David Stafford, whose career has been short-circuited by whistle-blowing and whose personal life is a disaster), and the heavy (bumbling Army bean-counter and petty thief Wendell Carson) are carefully drawn and fully credible. So are the underlings, officers and FBI agents who thread through their lives. This becomes especially important when Stafford?trying to track down a container of a deadly biological nerve gas that Carson has stolen from an Army base in Georgia?crosses paths with a young girl who seems to have psychic powers. In less skilled hands, this rogue element could send the vehicle skittering. But Deutermann quickly gives the girl and her keepers (a mysteriously intriguing woman teacher, a protective small-town policewoman) such a strong presence that they become vital to the story's exciting, moving conclusion. Author tour. Agent, Nicholas Ellison; editor, George Witte.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031219210X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312192105
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,448,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wham Zam Thriller Kadiller, June 28, 2005

By 

Louis N. Gruber "Author of Jay" (Lexington, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Zero Option (Mass Market Paperback)

David Stafford is a disgraced government bureaucrat, recently consigned to Siberia (Atlanta). Wendell Carson is a government bureacrat in good standing, but definitely on the take. His latest scheme involves a cylinder of the deadly "Wet Eye"--weapon of mass destruction beyond your wildest dreams--which he has acquired and is somehow planning to sell. The girl in the airport is mute but communicates in sign language and--get this--she is psychic, especially around bad guys. Throw these characters together and you have the makings of Zero Option, an improbable but gripping thriller.

So, will Carson really sell the cylinder for 1 million dollars? Will Stafford rehabilitate himself? Will the government do what is right or just try to cover up the loss of the cylinder? What do you think? Is this America? But, you will just have to read the book to find out for sure.

Is it perfect? Not quite. There are a few too many characters, especially in the beginning, and a few too many acronyms for government agencies and programs. Does it matter? No. Start reading and you quickly figure things out. This is a book that, as they say, you can't put down. Author Deutermann knows how to hold your attention, and he has worked with these guys, so he knows what he's talking about. Recommendation: get the book and start reading. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Quite Chilling, June 1, 2002

By 

David A. Spearman (Harbor Beach, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Zero Option (Mass Market Paperback)

Very descriptive of the Monster and its workings. Could have been a little overly stated. As the story progressed my interest perked and suddenly it turned into a full fledged rampant read.
The chenical weapons of the world could reek more havoc than any army in history has. The sad fact is most countrys have a great array of these killers and the ability to produce many more. Let us hope that this fiction never turns into fact for the sake of humanity. The last fifty pages will surely give a cold feeling up your spine.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable but not too plausible, February 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Zero Option (Hardcover)

Without giving too much away, I came to a point in this book where I said to myself, "OK, if she's a mind-reader I'm just going to put this book down right now!" Well, lo and behold, she was a mind-reader - one of the weakest methods of plot advancement around - but I didn't follow through on my threat. I finished and, primarily, enjoyed this book. However, there IS no book really without the "mind-reading" character and I found her inclusion to be solely to help our hero learn what was going on. Deutermann didn't reach very deep into his bag of tricks this time. Otherwise, a top notch thriller.