By Kathleen Jabs
Black Wings
A Mystery
LT Bridget Donovan suspects the worst when her former Naval Academy roommate, Audrey Richards, perishes in a botched take-off from an aircraft carrier. The Navy says it’s an accident, but facts don’t add up. Could it be suicide, or murder? Donovan’s unofficial investigation into what really happened, both during their past Academy days and in Richards’ final hours, forces her to examine the concepts of honor, justice and the role of loyalty in pursuit of those ideals.
This novel is a first-rate mystery/thriller that will keep you nervously turning pages. It’s also much more than that, as it raises important questions about honor, justice, loyalty, right and wrong, and the proper role of all these concepts in the modern military. What happens when loyalty to an individual “shipmate” appears to conflict with loyalty and obedience to the Navy? What happens when truth and orders seem to collide?
This is a great story about the insanity female cadets endure at the military academies, about learning to survive in the military, about friendship, and about secrets. I recommend it for anyone who is curious about military life or has experienced that life themselves.
Meet The Author
Kathleen Jabs
Kathleen graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in one of the first classes to include women, earning a Bachelor of Science in English with minors in Russian and Engineering. Her military career included service in Japan, Hawaii, Panama, the Pentagon, and military installations along the East Coast.
Concurrent with her Navy work, Kathleen earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from George Mason University. Her short stories have won awards and appeared in literary and national publications, including Good Housekeeping; Hayden’s Ferry Review; Other Voices; The Baltimore Review; Collateral; and Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors; and other journals. Her story, “Safekeeping,” was selected for the Random House Operation Homecoming anthology and the NPR Selected Shorts program. A four-time fellow at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, she published “Black Wings,” a novel, with Fuze Publishing in 2011. Kathleen lives with her husband in Virginia. They have two adult children.
