The Officers' Club

Ralph Peters

Jan 2011 · Macmillan + ORM

About this ebook

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?



At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

Lt. Roy Banks is questioned about the murder of Lt. Jessica Lamoureaux. He tells the investigator that he doesn't know anything about the murder. Then we learn of the story leading up to this event. Roy is having an affair with a captain's wife. He is part of a group of officers who enjoy partying, called The Officers' Club. Vietnam is over and life in the military is comparitively relaxed. Roy's best friend is Lt. Jerry Massetto. Jessica arrives at a party and later in the night attempts to seduce Roy. He tells her that he's involved and declines her offer. This seems to motivate her to try harder and it is as if she develops a fixation with him. Roy doesn't want anything to do with Jessie. He feels that she's manipulative and calculating. She proceeds to sleep with most of the people in Roy's circle of friends. One night Roy gets a call from Jerry. He's in big trouble in Mexico and needs help. After Roy rescues him, Jerry tells him that Jessie set him up. Was this novel interesting? Yes, in a dark way. It held my attention and described life the way that author James Ellroy might, bleak, but true to life. The characters seemed locked in their own fate and unable to rise above it. This reminded me of the realistic and naturalistic development in literature in the early 20th century, with Frank Norris, Upton Sinclair and Mark Twain. These characters' lives weren't heroic, they didn't evoke sympathy but they did depict a slice of life. I commend the author for the sympathetic treatment of one character who became one of the early AIDS victims of the 1970s. It was sad seeing this man become terminally ill and not knowing what was wrong with him. Was this an

The plot line wavers along with a cast of soldiers seemingly tightly connected. Not the pounding, page-turner as suspected. Actually, boring. J.P. Miller. Cambridge, MA

Nicely done Mr. Peters.

About the author

Ralph Peters is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former enlisted man, a controversial strategist and veteran of the intelligence world; a bestselling, prize-winning novelist; a journalist who has covered multiple conflicts and appears frequently in the broadcast media; and a lifelong traveler with experience in over seventy countries on six continents. A widely read columnist, Ralph Peters' journalism has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines and web-zines, including The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Harpers, and Armchair General Magazine. His books include The War After Armageddon, Endless War, and Red Army. Peters grew up in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, and studied writing at Pennsylvania State University. He lives and writes in the Washington, D.C. area.