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Published Jan 2011
304 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
Spring, 1981. Vietnam is over, but the repercussions linger. The military strives to recover as society reels from the excesses of the 1970s…
A sinister beauty and a dutiful soldier… a Hollywood lawyer running from a dirty past and a cast-off vet who seems to have no future… dueling drug gangs along the Mexican border… and the mutilated remains of a female lieutenant.
Stunning, promiscuous, and brilliant at spotting the weaknesses in others, Jessie Lamoureaux may have been killed by a jealous lover, a drug smuggler - or a ghost from a life she hoped she had left behind.
Was her murderer the Green Beret she betrayed? The captain whose marriage she shattered? The senior officer hoping to save her from herself? A female sergeant fighting for dignity in a man’s world? Or a fellow lieutenant with a secret of his own?
In this gritty tale of young men and women torn between the laws of the land and the laws of the heart, a dark journey leads from a moonlit beach in Mexico to mayhem in Iran - then back to a country looking for its soul. The Officers’ Club captures the passions and confusion of the times, the reckoning due after a decade of indulgence - and the commitment of those who stayed in uniform through the bad years.
As the military and society struggle to right themselves, their conflicts are embodied in the question:
Who killed Lieutenant Jessie Lamoureux?
"Starred Review. The murder of 1st Lt. Jessica Lamoureux at Arizona's Fort Huachuca kick-starts Peters's excellent mystery thriller set in the post-Vietnam era." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. It's likely that Peters, who writes nonfiction on military affairs as well as novels, is writing about a place and time he really knows, and the result is a hugely entertaining tale." - Booklist
"Starred Review. [An] absorbing and finely crafted portrayal of complex characters whose intertwining relationships come apart under the strain of differing expectations. In the tradition of James Jones, Norman Mailer, and Nelson DeMille." - Library Journal
"Part murder mystery, part character study, totally entertaining. Peters has created a character worthy of a sequel." - Kirkus
"The Officers’ Club is a perfect invocation of America and the post-Vietnam Army trying to repair its heart and soul in the aftermath of a long, disastrous war. For those of us who were there, as well as for those who were not, this is a must read; a remembrance of things we'd rather forget, and a reminder that history is prologue to the future. Peters writes with wit and style, his dialogue is as crisp and fresh as a newly-pressed uniform. An outstanding novel of mystery, seduction, sex, betrayal, and murder." - Nelson DeMille, New York Times bestselling author of The Lion
"Ralph Peters knows the people and culture of the modern military as well as any living writer; truthfully, no one writes them better. Peters is the gold standard which the rest of us are measured against." - Stephen Coonts, New York Times bestselling author of The Assassin
"With The Officers' Club, Ralph Peters elegantly proves that America's military forces are staffed with flesh and blood human beings, people for all their trials and tribulations who are dedicated not only to their country, but to each other. Brothers and sisters, in arms, all facing the same enemy which is sometimes themselves. Peters has written a real story about real people, and he's nailed it solid. I couldn't put it down. Hats off!" - David Hagberg, New York Times bestselling author of The Expediter
This information about The Officers' Club was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer and former enlisted man; a best-selling, prize-winning novelist; a controversial strategist and veteran of the intelligence world; a journalist who has covered multiple conflicts; and a lifelong traveler with experience in over seventy countries on six continents. He is the author of 24 previous books, fiction, and non-fiction.
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