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A Novel of World War II
William Morrow
August 2008
On Sale: August 1, 2008
Featuring: Peter Maxwell
352 pages
ISBN: 0060892552
EAN: 9780060892555
Hardcover
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Thriller Military | Mystery Historical | Suspense
It's 1943, World War II is well under way, and Ensign Peter
Maxwell is enjoying easy days in San Diego as base choir
director and warm nights with his new bride, Kay. But
there's a war out there waiting to be fought, and Pete wants
to be part of it. When a request comes up for
officers on an ammo ship (prophetically named after Pete's
Iowa hometown, Liberty Hill), newly promoted Lieutenant
Maxwell and the rest of his vocal quartet, the Fantail Four,
volunteer. The duty they pull is dangerous even for wartime:
the young officers find themselves in charge of a ship of
largely untrained African American sailors who hail from
big-city ghettoes, Dixie farms, and all ports in between.
As the racially tense Liberty Hill Victory
pulls into San Francisco's Port Chicago, the crew witnesses
a horrific explosion that paints the sky red. In the wake of
a mutiny by the port's surviving black sailors, protesting
unsafe conditions, the Liberty Hill must step in to
load ammo. This difficult task is made nearly impossible for
the Fantail Four by a racist captain who would love to see
the "colored" crew and his "college boy" officers fail. But
when Lieutenant Maxwell finds an ally in seaman "Sarge"
Washington, a former cop from the Black Belt of Chicago, the
deadly job gets done, if not without incident. . . .
They then sail into two violent storms—a literal typhoon
that could put them on the ocean's floor if their cargo
doesn't blow them to hell and gone first, and a figurative
one when a white officer is found brutally murdered in Shaft
Alley, the very bottom of the ship where the drive shaft
turns the propeller. And in the midst of a vast ocean and a
wider war, a farm boy from Iowa and a tough cop from the
ghetto must combine forces to stop a vengeful murderer who
threatens to ignite their floating powder keg.
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