ASIU #01 - Convoy

From Publishers WeeklyIn November 1942, Royal Navy Lieutenant Ned Yorke is recovering the use of his action-damaged left hand and falling in love with his nurse. Chafing at inactivity, Ned is called to Whitehall and the Anti-Submarine Intelligence Unit. Led by suave Captain Watts, ASIU is in the thick of the Battle of the Atlantic, where the Germans are sinking ships faster than the Allies can replace them. ASIU is especially worried by a new twist: lone Nazi subs are wreaking major havoc on Allied convoys from inside the convoys. Ned thinks he's found how the Germans manage this, but he must join a Freetown-bound convoy to spy on a supect neutral ship and, somehow, foil "the Insider." Pope (Decoy, etc.) has, as usual, given us fine wartime color at sea and in London, a keen depiction of the military bureaucracy, credible characters (including a regrettably brief appearance by Ned's mothersophisticated in "a kind and practical way," calmly braving wartime London) and a lively plot. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library JournalPope, who is best known for his "Ramage" series set in the days of sail, presents a modern-day story here: a World War II novel about submarine hunters in the North Atlantic. The action follows lieutenant Ned Yorke of the British Navy, who is sent to investigate a rash of unexplained convoy sinkings. He must find out how German submarines are arriving undetected in the midst of the convoys and why a mysterious Swedish vessel is always present. Posing as a shipwrecked sailor, he manages to get aboard the Swedish ship. Yorke is a convincing character, and the plot is compelling enough to interest most readers. More technical details of actual ship-handling and battle might please the real sea story buff, but on the whole this is a good, entertaining novel. C. Robert Nixon, M.L.S., W. Lafayette, Ind.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.