THE STORM AND THE SILENCE

Once again the thrilling story of a man hunt is made the motive of an absorbing novel. Not since Rogue Male has the theme been handled so adroitly, with almost unbearable tensions, as the circle narrows and the trap closes. With flashback and shift from group to individual and back, a three panelled story is eventually grooved. And the end impression is one of the tragedy of waste- the waste of a man with potentials for great good, as Tam Diamond is again the victim of an ungovernable temper that has made him a lone wolf, and that this time isolates him from the society of men. Tam's Glasgow boyhood -- and his first contact with the law; his Commando service, and the influence for good briefly exerted by his commanding officer; his checkered post-war years, with his temper flaring into violence, and luck saving him time and again until a brief burst of passion ends in accidental death and Tam knows himself a fugitive. Gradually the net closes, and the story traces Tam's cunning reasoning as he circles in flight- and the representatives of an ordered society pool their knowledge to bring him to justice. At the end, it is nature's own justice, mated out in a dramatic climax. The storm ends in silence. Well written, this introduces- for this reader at any rate- a new and more than promising author.