P.T. Deutermann's World War II navy series began with the award-winning Pacific Glory , followed by the brilliantly reviewed Ghosts of Bungo Suido . His new novel Sentinels of Fire tells the tale of a lone destroyer, the USS Malloy , part of the Allied invasion forces attacking the island of Okinawa and the Japanese home islands. By the spring of 1945, the once mighty Japanese fleet has been virtually destroyed, leaving Japan open to invasion. The Japanese react by dispatching hundreds of suicide bombers against the Allied fleet surrounding Okinawa. By mid-May, the Allied fleet is losing a major ship a day to murderous swarms of kamikazes streaming out of Formosa and southern Japan. The radar picket line is the first defense and early warning against these hellish formations, but the Japanese direct special attention to these lone destroyers stationed north and west of Okinawa. One destroyer, the USS Malloy , faces an even more pressing issue when her Executive Officer Connie Miles begins to realize that the ship's much-admired Captain Pudge Tallmadge is losing his mind under the relentless pressure of the attacks. Set against the blazing gun battles created by the last desperate offensive of the Japanese, Executive Officer Miles and the ship's officers grapple with the consequences of losing their skipper's guidance―and perhaps the ship itself and everyone on board. Vividly authentic, historically accurate, and emotionally compelling, Sentinels of Fire is military adventure at its best, by an author whose career as a Navy captain informs every page. When Connie Miles signs on as executive officer of the destroyer USS Malloy in 1945, he knows he has a lot of learning to do in a very short time: life on a destroyer is considerably different from life on an aircraft carrier, where Miles had been a gunnery officer. Soon Miles begins to suspect that the ship’s respected and popular captain is showing signs of mental instability (the Malloy has been under near-constant attack for an extended period of time). Can a raw executive officer and a crew who need a captain’s leadership complete their latest mission without cracking under the pressure? With echoes of both Thomas Heggen’s Mr. Roberts (1946) and Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny (1952), in which a junior officer must try to maintain the efficiency and spirit of the crew under a captain’s relentlessly mean and vicious command, this is an excellent WWII naval adventure from an author whose backlist includes the award-winning Pacific Glory (2011), among other military-themed novels. --David Pitt “With echoes of both Thomas Heggen's Mr. Roberts (1946) and Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny (1952), in which a junior officer must try to maintain the efficiency and spirit of the crew under a captain's relentlessly mean and vicious command, this is an excellent WWII naval adventure from an author whose backlist includes the award-winning Pacific Glory (2011), among other military-themed novels.” ― Booklist P.T. DEUTERMANN is the noted author of many novels based on his experiences as a senior staff officer in Washington and at sea as a Navy Captain, and later, Commodore. His WWII works include The Last Paladin and Pacific Glory , both of which won the W.Y. Boyd Award for Excellence in Military Fiction, Iwo, 26 Charlie, The Hooligans, The Nugget, Sentinels of Fire, The Commodore, Trial By Fire, and The Iceman . He lives with his wife of more than 50 years in North Carolina. Sentinels of Fire A Novel By P. T. Deutermann St. Martin's Press Copyright © 2014 P. T. Deutermann All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-250-04118-0 ONE On my very first day aboard USS Malloy, a Jap fighter plane came within fifteen feet of taking my head right off before it exploded just above the water on the opposite side of the ship. The captain looked down at me from the bridge wing once all the shooting stopped, shot me a lopsided grin, and said, “Welcome aboard, XO. How do you like your coffee?” An hour later I thought of a truly smartass reply, but at that very moment, I was speechless and a bit deaf, too. I had literally just come aboard. The bridge messenger, a young seaman who looked to be no more than twelve years old, led me forward along the starboard side through all the guntubs to ascend the weather-deck ladders up to the bridge. We’d gotten halfway up the first ladder when that kamikaze came in out of nowhere, its screaming engine audible above the sudden burst of fire from the midships forties, joined immediately by all the twenty-millimeter mounts. I had been standing underneath a four-barreled forty-millimeter gun mount when the gunners first spotted him. Every gun on that side opened fire. The messenger and I dropped back down to the main deck and huddled under the ladder to avoid the shower of brass cartridges raining down on our heads. The muzzle blasts were so powerful that I couldn’t catch my breath, but that was nothing compared to seein