A Code for Tomorrow
- Book Review,
by John Gobbell
From Publishers Weekly
In his sequel to the WWII adventure The Last Lieutenant, former navy lieutenant Gobbell unfolds a pedestrian tale of combat, espionage and romance in the Pacific during 1942. Officer Todd Ingram is serving on a destroyer as the U.S. Navy battles the Japanese Imperial Navy around the hotly contested Solomon Islands. Hailed as a hero after his daring escape from Corregidor, Ingram battles his fears of capture and death, and his worries about his sweetheart, army nurse Helen Durand, trapped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Via an implausibly obvious ruse, a Russian double spy working for the Japanese dupes Ingram and his bigmouth pals into revealing military secrets about faulty American torpedoes. Then Ingram is conveniently sent to the Philippines, where he means to rescue Helen and retrieve those secrets in one heroic sweep. Instead, he is captured and tortured by the Japanese. Helen proves resourceful, however, rescuing her would-be rescuer as she leads a Filipino guerrilla unit in an attack on the Japanese naval base where Ingram is held. Blustering and never notably bright, Gobbell's characters come across as caricatures, especially the Japanese and Russian bad guys. With little suspense, no humor and no emotional spark, the story lumbers along amid sophomoric dialogue, side plots that go nowhere and reams of useless data. (We learn, for example, each character's height and weight.) Though its battles seem well researched, the choppy prose drains even those scenes of excitement. Lieutenant Ingram's further adventures turn out to be as much a dud as one of those bad torpedoes. (July) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
This is the follow-up to Gobbell's well-received The Last Lieutenant (1995). This time Gobbell tracks young naval officer Todd Ingram, a Corregidor escapee, through more World War II action afloat in the Pacific, ashore in the Philippines, and through the hallowed halls of military high command. It is still early in the war, and despite the promise of easy duty, Ingram is quickly sent back to help fight the Japanese navy in places few Americans knew existed prior to Pearl Harbor. Ingram is also anxious to get back to the Philippines where Helen Durand, his army-nurse sweetheart, is working with a resistance force behind enemy lines. Gobbell, himself a young naval officer, combines painstaking research and solid storytelling to produce a highly readable military adventure. The novel ends in 1943, leaving fans anxious for the next installment of Ingram's wartime exploits. Budd Arthur
From Kirkus Reviews
A near-miss sequel about the Navy during WWII that's only at sea when it's ashore. After his gallantry on and eventual escape from Corregidor in The Last Lieutenant (1995), Todd Ingram finds himself high and dry in San Francisco. Its August, 1942, and high and dry is exactly the way Todd likes it. His assignment is undemanding. Enemy guns are, for a change, aimed at targets other than him. It's the Navy's way of allowing him to lick his wounds, both physical and emotional. Lieutenant Ingramsoon to be promoted to lieutenant commander, soon to be awarded the Navy Crosshas been promised six months of cushy duty, and he wants every day of it. But there's a war on, you know, and the Navy reserves the right to change its mind. Which it does in Ingram's case because battle-savvy officers are scarce and desperately needed. Before he can say Davy Jones, Ingram is piped aboard the destroyer Howell as its executive officer just as his new ship is about to play a significant role in a bloody fight off the coast of Guadalcanal. In the meantime, Nurse Helen Durand, the love of Ingram's life, is maneuvering on Mindanao, one of the Philippine Islands swarmed over by the rampaging Japanese army. While Ingram makes like Horatio Hornblower, Durand does Mata Hari, stealing mighty important secrets having to do with those terrific Japanese torpedoes. Ingram performs bravely when the Howell comes under fire. Durand is equally intrepid when her lover is later captured by the enemy. Safely back in San Francisco, the two get all the sweet rewards justly reserved for superheroes. The sea action is exciting and thoroughly convincing. It's those land-locked melodramatics that a bit too often require a grain of (old) salt. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"From its exciting beginning on board a Russian prisoner ship off the coast of San Francisco to its incredible high-action conclusion off the coast of Mindanao, this World War II novel cooks with intrigue....This stick-to-your-fingers novel is John J. Gobbell at his best."
--Stephen J. Cannell, author of The Tin Collectors
"A Code for Tomorrow is big and fast as a Fletcher class destroyer, and the story races along with pace and power...a thrilling read." --T. Jefferson Parker, author of Red Light and Silent Joe
Review
"From its exciting beginning on board a Russian prisoner ship off the coast of San Francisco to its incredible high-action conclusion off the coast of Mindanao, this World War II novel cooks with intrigue....This stick-to-your-fingers novel is John J. Gobbell at his best."
--Stephen J. Cannell, author of The Tin Collectors
"A Code for Tomorrow is big and fast as a Fletcher class destroyer, and the story races along with pace and power...a thrilling read." --T. Jefferson Parker, author of Red Light and Silent Joe
Book Description
As the war in the South Pacific heats up, Lieutenant Todd ingram gets a new assignment to the destroyer U.S. Howell, on which he will serve as executive officer. Thrown into two epic naval battles of early World War II, the Battle of Cape Esperance and the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, a young but already battle-weary Todd Ingram is also in the middle of a personal nightmare: his sweetheart, Army nurse Helen Durand, is trapped behind enemy lines, fighting for the resistance on Mindanao. With Soviet espionage activity hindering his rescue of Helen, Lieutenant Ingram is at an impasse. In danger of losing both the woman he loves and a war in which he had fought so valiantly, Ingram puts his life on the line for a world on the brink of destruction...
From the whispers of lovers parted by war to the explosive, harrowing naval action in the battle of Santa Cruz Islands, A Code for Tomorrow brilliantly portrays World War II and the lives it irrevocable touched...
From the Publisher
"From its exciting beginning on board a Russian prisoner ship off the coast of San Francisco to its incredible high-action conclusion off the coast of Mindanao, this World War II novel cooks with intrigue....This stick-to-your-fingers novel is John J. Gobbell at his best." --Stephen J. Cannell, author of Riding the Snake and King Con "A Code for Tomorrow is big and fast as a Fletcher class destroyer, and the story races along with pace and power...a thrilling read." --T. Jefferson Parker, author of The Blue Hour and Where Serpents Lie
About the Author
JOHN J. GOBBELL is a former Navy lieutenant who saw duty in the 1960s as a destroyer's weapons officer. His ship served in the South China Sea, granting him membership in the exclusive "Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club." He and his wife, Janine, live in Newport Beach, California.
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