Code Word: Precipice: An International Thriller

Lieutenant Commander Kaycee “Pecos” Jenkins is a navy strike fighter pilot and a damn good one, with three kills and a serious medal. But despite her best efforts, to her twin adolescent daughters she seems missing in action. And she has a secret she fears will destroy her Top Gun reputation. On a mission in the Indian Ocean, cruiser skipper Captain Mort Greenhouse discovers that crucial information is being withheld from him. He fears he’s being set up for failure—by his boss. Many command levels above them, Admiral “Popeye” Finnegan labors to shake the fleet out of its peacetime mindset as a Chinese invasion of Taiwan looms. He orders Jenkins, Greenhouse, and thousands of others to carry out Operation Precipice, which he hopes will head off the invasion, but may trigger it.

Doug Norton draws on both experience and research to pen the Code WordSeries. As a warship captain during the cold war Doug held launch codesfor nuclear weapons and was prepared to use them, but he also participatedin high-stakes international negotiations to reduce their numbers and thechance of nuclear war. In Geneva, Brussels, London, and Washington heexperienced diplomacy and politics in tense meetings, glittering receptions, and deadline-driven all-nighters.A graduate of the Naval Academy and of the University of Washington, Doug was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow andDirector of International Studies at the Naval Academy. After serving morethan twenty-five years, Captain Norton retired from the navy and was anexecutive recruiter for fifteen years. Doug and his wife live in Annapolis, where he volunteered with the Coast Guard Auxiliary in search and rescueand Anne Arundel Medical Center in the emergency department. He lovesto meet readers and has signed books in bars, hospitals, and hotels as wellas book stores, libraries, and book clubs.