For adventure lovers, this has a lot to recommend it, despite a sag in the middle. You can bet when the action starts, it becomes dynamic, but there are 100 pages of prep to get there.
Young Hugh Brittain at 24 is already disillusioned by working life. Not interested in his New York job or future career, or even in pretty Alice whom he works with. He could do worse than marry her and settle down, but it's the last thing he wants.
Adventure. Travel. That is for him.
He meets up with an old Navy buddy who has a proposition of danger and challenge (including possible death and imprisonment, but young men don't think that far).
A man is gathering ex-Navy sailors to raise a scuttled 1918 German U-boat off Fire Island. Frank is the man, ex-German Navy who when just 15 worked on the submarine when influenza broke out, and the ship was sunk. Hugh joins ex-navy friend Vic, Rosa (an Italian widow), Moreno (who will captain), and Linc (ex-British Navy) with Frank, to raise and refurbish the sub. It's no easy task to check all systems and make her seaworthy again - in fact it takes over 100 pages. My mind wandered, as they have all agreed beforehand to the plan which will bring them unheard of riches, but they did not let me know what they were going to do.
On the appointed date, they sail out under the cover of darkness to set the trap - The Queen Mary, the most luxurious liner sailing - is the target. The goal: to board it and steal all the cash from the locked safes, deposit boxes, and even the first class passengers. When this plan kicks into motion, the novel takes off and gripped me - how can they pull this off?!
This section is packed with action, and the getaway is both ingenious and so foolhardy as to have them all killed. It's really sensational.
For adventure and tension, a thrilling robbery, and even more exciting finale, I highly recommend this thriller. There is a lot of submarine repair to get through, so it's not a complete winner - however, the point was made at every step of the raising and refurbishment that at any stage, at any moment, this whole endeavour could collapse.
This was made into a 1966 film written by Rod Serling, and starring Frank Sinatra and Verna Lisi, which looks to be faithful to the novel.
Jack Finney is the writing name of Walter Braden Finney, whose novel Good Neighbour Sam was filmed with Jack Lemmon, and The Body Snatchers (renamed Invasion of the Body Snatchers) has been filmed several times, and inspired many imitations.
1959 / Hardcover / 192 pages
Sounds like a great read for simon, will look for it, ill let you know if i can track a copy down.
New author to me. Will search for this book? Waiting for the blog on A Head full of Ghosts.
Neeru