text: Timothy Hart lost his B-25 over Germany in 1942 and is spending the rest of the war as a guest of the Third Reich in Stalag Luft 13.  In 1944 Tuskeegee airman Lincoln Scott arrives in camp and is promptly accused of cutting the throat of smuggler Vincent Bedford.  The prisoners demand a trial, their jailers agree, and ex-Harvard law student Hart is appointed to defend Scott, who appears inexplicably less than grateful.  
  
  	In fact their German jailers are more helpful to the defense than either Scott or the American officers, or so it seems, as Scott's trial for murder progresses against a backdrop of class conflict, racial hatred and world war.  Atmospheric to the point of claustrophobia, a perfectly paced plot, and one of the few times I've been completely blindsided by a novel's climax.
  
  PS--The film adaptation starring Bruce Willis is truly gagworthy, stay away from it
  