Sweepers

PT Deutermann did it again. Great characters and development. I really enjoyed his positive portrayal of the Dobermans in the book. Nice job! He got the dog's character down well. Protective, but never vicious. I'd have to recommend this book for any Doberman fan as well as people who enjoy a good action thriller.

The novel begins with what appears to be a routine police investigation into what may or not be an accidental death. A beautiful woman is dead and her former boyfriend, a frocked Rear Admiral (lower half)assigned to the navy staff at the Pentagon may or may not be a suspect. The young admiral, who had served in Vietnam years before as the skipper of a Swift boat plying the tributaries of the Mekong River has something of a past. His marriage ended in divorce like so many other military marriages. His only son, a real dirtbag and loser hates him and wants revenge. So does the ex-Navy SEAL who feels that young Lieutenant Sherman left him for dead so many years before. As the case gets murkier, an old friend and mentor of RADM Sherman dies of a heart attack. Is it really a heart attack or a well disguised murder which hints at further retribution? The Navy and local police get involved and the Judge Advocate General of the Navy (the JAG) also gets involved by assigning a female lawyer on the verge of retirement and an NIS (Naval Investigative Service) agent to the case. Things become very complicated very quickly and more than just Admiral Sherman begin to find themselves in jeopardy and facing real risks. Since his first novel, SCORPION IN THE SEA, Peter Deutermann has only improved as a writer and storyteller. His former career as a Surface Warfare Officer, Arms Negotiator and Senior Staff Officer provided him with both an excellent background and volumes of material from which to draw his stories. He writes very well and provides his readers with all of the information necessary to understand the arcane ways in which the operational and staff sides of the Navy work on a day-to-day basis. He also fully develops his characters. While he doesn't do so too quickly, he provides just enough information on each of them to keep the reader wondering just what else he has in store for them. He also lets the reader hang just long enough until he drops the next vital piece of info. It is my opinion that Peter Deutermann has become a master of pacing and tension building and he has done much to create his own sub-genre in the larger arena of military and techno-thrillers. Call it the naval mystery if you will but understand that this specialized type of fiction belongs to Deutermann and Deutermann alone. I heartily recommend this book and all of the others by this fine writer. His other books are NOT part of a series so it does not matter what order you read them in. If you like(ed) SWEEPERS then try OFFICIAL PRIVILEGE; it's where Captain Deutermann segued off and started writing naval mysteries. His other books are all excellent, too and will provide many hours of suspenseful but enjoyable reading. I hope he continues to write for years to come. BZ Captain Deutermann! Thank you for many hours of reading enjoyment.

This is the first book that I have read by pt and thought it was great. Once I picked it up I had to finish it in one setting. The action and suspense kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I am looking forward to reading more from him.

I read Sweepers in one sitting--this happens with maybe one in every twenty books I read. P. T. Deutermann gets it right this time as with his previous efforts.

The bad folks are truly evil and the heroes are terrific in the most literately done novel I've read since I can remember! P.T. Deutermann, Captain, USN, retired, goes considerably further than the other top writer involved in military detail in that his characters come alive and his specific events leave you pretty much "ridden hard and put away wet". He makes convoluted plots easily understandable and his use of plain English is wonderful. When a young gunboat skipper, "in-country" in the waterways of Vietnam, leaves a U S Navy SEAL stranded as the result of a tad too much unfriendly fire he creates his worst nightmare. The SEAL becomes known as a MIA...then pops up years later to exact some serious payback from the now newly promoted admiral that left him in the water and weeds of the Vietnamese jungle