Found an ePub version in the Kobo bookstore. ( )

Jejune. That's the word that best describes this novel by the then 28 year-old Hammond Innes. It's a bit of a chore to read, especially the first third. The German plot to conduct a disabling attack on Britain during the early years of the war, frankly, is downright goofy. And the dialog is stiff and awkward, many of the characters boring caricatures. Even compared with Innes' other two early books penned in 1940, The Trojan Horse and Wreckers Must Breathe, the plot is outlandish. Worse, the setting is half-baked and undeveloped. The atmosphere that in those other two books at least gave a sense place and firmness simply doesn't exist in Attack Alarm.

What happened during Innes' experience in World War II, I don't know. But he emerged a different writer. The shallowness of these early works dissipates, and strongly plotted, well paced adventure stories, with strong characters replace them. Simply put, they're more adult. But that was five years in the future. Between 1941 and 1946, whatever happened to Innes served to age him in more ways than one. He became a much better writer.

I have now read all but the last two and first four of his novels. In doing so, I can see the repeated connections that are there between many, if not all, of them. Even Attack Alarm can in some ways provide a preview of Air Bridge, the first novel of Innes' that I read a few months ago and which would be published a decade after Attack Alarm. Somehow, I feared this book would disappoint. And it did. But it still makes for interesting insight into how the author developed over the years and the preoccupations that would stay with him during his entire life.

A couple of good passages worth noting. Innes does an excellent job depicting the feeling fear his protagonist, Barry Hanson, must overcome. He also serves up some very human and humane observations about death during struggle and war. ( )