Synopsis
Dark Motive...
At the US Naval Academy, the students refer to the administration as the Darkside, a nickname befitting the secrecy and manipulation that occur behind closed office doors. So when a first-year student falls to his death from a campus building, the Academy tenses as the Darkside begins to creep out of the shadows to cut off any potential scandal.
Dark Secret...
Retired naval aviator Ev Markham is now a professor at the Academy. When a provocative clue connects the dead student to senior midshipman Julie Markham, Ev knows how quickly his daughter could become the easy scapegoat the Darkside badly craves. But a second body convinces Academy security chief Jim Hall that a killer is on the loose. As both men struggle to uncover the truth, a psychopath more sinister than they can imagine lies in wait, protecting the ultimate-and most deadly-secret of all...
Darkside
Publishers Weekly
Deutermann's latest-a tense mystery set in and around the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis-is sleek, sharp and scary. The author (Sweepers; Hunting Season; etc.) has strong connections to the Academy, and seasoned reader Hill deftly showcases Deutermann's expertise. When a plebe at the Academy mysteriously falls out of a sixth-story window and dies, energetic Midshipman First Class Julie Markham, an acquaintance of the dead, is placed under scrutiny. While she scrambles to clear herself of blame, the plot thickens, and the Academy reels from the possibility that there's a murderer on the loose. Hill expertly brings to life a variety of characters, including Markham; her father, Ev, who teaches history at the Academy; Annapolis security chief Jim Hall; and tough defense lawyer Liz DeWinter, who gets some of the book's best lines as she goes up against the Academy's "dark side"-the cadre of super-loyalists anxious to protect and defend the institution from scandal at any cost. Simultaneous release with the St. Martin's hardcover (Forecasts, Oct. 21). (Dec.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.