text: I love mysteries set in WW II and like old time radio so I couldn't wait to begin this one. The "hero" is a junior varsity Tom Joad but,OK, I was game.  The cast of characters that seemed to number in the low 80s and be interchangable "baddies" and "goodies".  They were hard to keep track of without a scorecard but there is no quit in this reader and I pushed on. Then when we got to the Jersey shore, I found out that in 1942 with America fighting for it's life against fascism, and losing, our hero knew why.  All the servicemen were bullies (A drafted station employee) or morons (the Coast Guard beach patrol).  The 4F "hero" was the real McCoy however.  Although not actually mentioned I bet he wished that dratted ear injury hadn't kept him from joining the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.  He was moderate enought to think Marxism had some problems; the murder of 10s of millions of Ukrainians and the Nazi-USSR Pact probably and I say probably, didn't elude our observant literary genius.  He was also a 1975 era feminist; all those plucky WW II women throwing off the handcuffs chaining them naked to the kitchen sink had his unhesitating support.  Most big businessmen, probably wearing spats and silk high hats, were the bad guys needless to say.  I wondered how someone could write such a truly awful book.  I couldn't finish it and it's a point of honor for me to finish all books.  Then in the bio it all became clear.  The author was a flack for former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder of Colorado.  I'm still haunted by her rictus grin and constipated, Quaker schoolmarm expression that said "somebody, somewhere is having fun and I want it to stop now!!!"  Anyone who could stand to work for Pat could write this book with ease
  