... is Dave Miller, an Innocent man impaled as the victim of a loyalty investigation and destroyed ultimately by his own weakness, -- for although he has a faith in his convictions, he has little in himself. The Millers live on a small suburban street with their close friend Robert McCarron, with Jane and Tracy. Tracy who is a bully and a bigot, and with the Joneses, Jews and therefore ""Communists"" as branded by Tracy. Dave is also a Jew and therefore subject, and he is guilty if only by association with the Joneses, and is later suspended from his job- a government installation. The months pass, and Dave is unable to accure a hearing; his boy, Roger, turns against him, then is beaten up in his defense. Believing. In the position he has taken he is unable to endure its backlash, and his death, while accidental, is a release..... A believable illustration of an issue, and the prose while pretty plebeian- authenticates rather than distinguishes it. A first novel, but not the first time this point has been raised.