Cassell, 2000, $9.95, ISBN 0-304-35694-8, 192 pgs., paperback

This reprinted 1943 novel tracks the increasingly insecure life of Sammy Rice, a weapons scientist working on a variety of projects during WWII. He’s not on the front line, but ensconced in a back room tinkering with mortars, guns, lubricants, fuses, and other experimental designs.

However, instead of success, he mostly experiences failure. Oh, and he’s lost a foot somewhere in life and battles alcoholism. And he feels completely unworthy of his live-in girlfriend. It’s pretty much a downer of a book.

However, a new German boobytrap is killing people and Sammy’s the man to figure out how to defuse it. And so begins the last third of the book when one of these booby traps is found intact…and ready for him.

So it goes. It’s not a bad book. It’s not a good book. It’s average. The first two thirds of the book shows his quiet desperation. The last third picks up your attention as the booby trap becomes the focus. On the other had, someone thought enough of it to make a movie in 1948. So there you have it.

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