THE SHOOT

by Elleston Trevor ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 25, 1966

A quasi-documentary drama about strained nerves and moral passion at a British missile testing base in the South Pacific, The Shoot is dynamic and very readable indeed. Trevor has decided against attempting to write a great novel and settled instead for a tightly sealed one which he delivers right on target.... London decides to secretly install a thousand megaton bomb on the island of Tokariji which has been used for years as a base for the peaceful exploration of space. Accompanying the bomb is a small military unit headed by Colonel Pyne. He falls afoul of Dr. Chapel, the principal civilian officer in charge of Tokariji. Chapel had worked on the Hiroshima bomb and had suffered a breakdown then, is close to one now with the presence of the bomb on the island. However Pyne has decided never to fire it, even if the order were to come through. A further complication is the liaison between Pyne and Chapel's wife. And the climax is reached with the dismantling of the warhead and its submersion in the ocean.... One mark of a good writer is that you can never tell what his characters will say next: Elleston's characters speak with unexpectedly clear intelligence.

Pub Date: March 25, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1966

Categories: FICTION