"Youth, and the sea, and a voyage to nowhere except possibly self-discovery have been a powerful theme in the novel ever since Joseph Conrad, and Dennis Doherty does that tradition proud with Liberty Call."
- Tad Richards, NYT bestselling author
"…a maelstrom cruise through the South China Sea in a man's world[,] a raw and honest telling of men living high on the edge."
- Laurence Carr, Pancake Hollow Primer and Lightwood Press
"Dennis Doherty's superlative novel combines his first-hand knowledge of warships with the compelling character of Walter Schmertz, to tell a sizzler of a story. Animated prose has you turn the pages as fast as the eye can see. Many head-turning events later, you'll feel yourself in a new world, with a new mind. A must read!
- David Appelbaum, fmr editor of Parabola Magazine and founder of Codhill Press
"dazzling (stage-worthy) dialogue with poetically evocative landscape…. constitutes the voice of the narration…. The rest is character. And there are many characters that stay with you - above all, the protagonist Schmerz, naval radio operator and Arthurian Knight in disguise."
- H.R. Stoneback, Distinguished Professor, SUNY New Paltz
"an eye-opening story...that is powerful[,] unexpected[,]made all the stronger for its roots in a real-life story."
- D.Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Inspired by real life events, Walter is the newest arrival to the U.S. Navy Base at Olongapo, in the heart of the Philippines. Handpicked by Chief Parma to acquire new radio expertise for his ship in response to The Iran Hostage Crisis, Walter expected his training to be a clean-cut operation. His training doesn't go as planned, however, and the crimes he and his shipmates commit could never be kept in any book, for their sake. After all, Olongapo is a city that never forgets, and neither does the Navy-neither does Chief Parma. Walter won't be making it to roll-call if he can't keep his crew-mates from the gangsters and his lover from The Chief. Walter should have known that war wasn't only fought on foreign soil.
As Parma put it, between the bee and the balm is the bottle, the smoke, and the stinger.
