The Savage Wars of Peace

The Savage Wars of Peace follows Jake Brabston, a peripatetic pilot haunted by what he considers his failures on a mission in Afghanistan. He is recruited by his old C.O. to fly for the UN in the Sudan. There he meets Tamsin Amidon, a dedicated relief worker with little time for anything but her projects and clinics. Together they face the loss of friends to the mohajadeen, MiG fighters, and the Sudanese secret police.

THE SAVAGE WARS OF PEACE by Darcy Vernier SYNOPSIS Jake Brabston was a Marine helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. On a recon mission he was shot down and was the only survivor. Two days in the rugged countryside, including one as a POW, have left him haunted and peripatetic. Were he in a western novel he would be called a “drifter.” Years later while working in a French Quarter strip club, he is recruited by his old commanding officer, Walt Macbeth, a man with many years in Africa, but unknown priorities. With nothing to keep him in New Orleans, and the belief that there are no bad flying jobs, Jake is off to the Sudan. When he accepted Macbeth's offer he said that he just wanted to fly: "No do-gooder stuff." Tamsin Amidon is an idealistic relief worker, dedicated to her work. She is beautiful, smart, sexy, and, normally, uninterested in any kind of commitment to anything but her job. She is the quintessential "do-gooder." In many ways it is her story as much as it is Jake’s. While in Mombassa the two of them meet and fall, if not in love, certainly in lust. The longer they are together, Jake's demons fall away and he understands more and more of the basis for Tamsin's selfless dedication, and how empty his life has been. Bit by bit, he learns that it may be possible to achieve a balance, to even out the scale of lives lost, with lives saved. Tamsin teaches him to take “the small victories.” Together, the two of them share a number of adventures, which reflect the turbulent, dangerous part of the world in which they're working. Friends are murdered by rampaging mohajadeen; the evacuation of a hospital is interrupted by government MiG fighters. Finally, while escorting a UN food barge headed up the Nile, Tamsin is kidnapped by government soldiers. She and two other relief workers witness the massacre of hundreds of Dinka families, an event which actually occurred in 1986. The others are killed and Tamsin is raped, brutalized, and left for dead. When Jake hears of the barge hijacking, he immediately tries to learn what happened, but is told by Macbeth to “mourn appropriately and get on with your life.” It seems that there was more than food items on the barge, and Macbeth and whoever he is working for, were in the middle of it. Ignoring Macbeth’s directive, Jake finds and rescues Tamsin. He gets her back to the aircraft, but, as they are flying to safety, she asks him to go back for a group of women and children who would surely be killed by the soldiers. Knowing the risks but knowing that he must take them, Jake lands and loads the women and children. As they make their escape, a Sudanese soldier fires a Stinger missile that cripples their aircraft and kills Tamsin. Jake flies on, alone, across the Sudan, towards safety.

DARCY VERNIER Biography Darcy Vernier grew up in Montana and Brazil. He graduated American University in Washington D.C. and joined the Marine Corps. In the Marines he was a combat helicopter pilot, earning 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses and 50 Air Medals in Vietnam. He later instructed Navy and Marine Corps fixed wing students in Pensacola. Darcy left the Marine Corps and worked for a number of years as a commodity futures broker, trading speculative and hedge accounts, as well as managing a number of offices for different firms. Wanting to return to aviation, he was hired by Aloha Island Air and flew the DeHavilland Twin Otter (DHC-6) in and out of various remote airstrips in Hawaii. He left Hawaii to attend grad school at Emerson College in Boston. While there, he was hired by AirServ International to fly Twin Otters for the United Nations in the Sudan. AirServ operated out of Lokichokio, Kenya, and the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. There he worked with the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Medicin du Monde, and other relief groups in the African bush. In spite of the difficulties of communication and logistics, he continued his studies at Emerson by mail and fax. Returning to the US, Darcy finished his MFA in Creative Writing with a 3.79 GPA. His master’s thesis was the screenplay SUDAN, which was also a Nicholl Fellowship quarter finalist. SUDAN has been optioned twice, but not produced. His novel, The Savage Wars of Peace, developed from that screenplay. Darcy returned to Africa, flying the Twin Otter in support of oil exploration in central Algeria, in the middle of the Sahara. He was offered a chance at “big” aircraft, and joined Champion Airlines, flying the Boeing 727. Later, he flew the Boeing 737 and the Twin Otter for Saudi Armaco, in Saudi Arabia. He was in Saudi Arabia on 9/11. Since returning to the US, Darcy has taught English at three different colleges, been Director of Operations at the LA Center of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, done aviation accident insurance investigation, taught Private Pilot Ground School, and flown an air ambulance out of Van Nuys, CA. After 40 years of flying he became a flight instructor in 2011 and teaches primary and advanced flight students around the LA area. He also chases auditions and is a member of the Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG). He is currently working on the second book in the Jake Brabston series. Darcy has been published in a number of publications, including the Harvard Review. He lives in Los Angeles with his family.