The Lord Is a Man of War
By
LOVERS of adventure stories should mark down the name of Stanley F. Donath, a refugee of Czech heritage now living in New Jersey. I know of no American who could have done such a slick writing job, outside of James M. Cain.
This wild and yet somehow strictly disciplined tale begins at the New York World’s Fair. Jan Dvorin, a young Czech refugee, is desperately trying to save enough money out of his wages as a counterman to bring his father to America. He soon learns, however, that all his sacrifices have been useless because the old man has been killed by the S.S. That’s where the fantasy begins. It’s all supposed to be real, of course, and it is carried off with the greatest aplomb, but a more amazing series of events has never got between book covers.
Jan finds out the name of the officer responsible for the murder (he’s known him in the past) and he’s off on a one-man invasion of Europe to hunt him down and kill him. His hunt takes him through Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, France (to name the better-known places).
Without the greatest skill on the author’s part, such a wide-ranging story invites comparison with a comic strip. But that skill is here. It is as highly professional as this sort of thing can be, and it makes me wish to see what Alfred Hitchcock could make of it. Knopf, $2.50.
MILTON HINDUS
MILTON HINDUS