Hunter Killer [Paperback]

This naval thriller of the cold war and space race era was described by the "New York Times" when it was published in 1966 with the words "action at hurricane velocity" and it delivers this. I first read it as a boy of twelve a few years later, and even at that age I could spot some pretty serious credibility issues with the plot, but it didn't stop the story grabbing my attention.

Even now that, with an adult perspective, the plot appears even more ridiculous than I thought at the time, I can still lose myself in this book for an hour or so.

The story is set in what was from the perspective of 1966 a future era, shortly after the first manned mission to the moon and later than the early 1970's. It is narrated by Captain John Garland, and the first line of the novel is "Geoffrey Peace was dead." (Garland and Peace appear in several of Geoffrey Jenkin's other novels.)

But is Peace really dead - or his "death" part of the elaborate cover scheme for a secret project?

A new Anglo/American rocket system has the potential both to affect the balance of power against the Soviets in the cold war and to boost the space programme - but it has fallen foul of political manouvering on both sides of the Atlantic. To fool both the Soviets and domestic political opponents, elements of the British and US Administrations are plotting to surprise the world with an unexpected mission to the moon, flown by a very high-profile pilot - the Vice President of the USA.

Our heroes embark on the Hunter-Killer submarine HMS Devastation, and from the very beginning the voyage is eventful, with every classic submarine story cliche and a few new ones, from a dangerous encouter with a huge undersea creature to the discovery on the sea bed of the ruins of a drowned city. But it is when they rendezvous with the US submarine Willowtrack which is bringing the Veep, that the fertiliser really hits the ventilator.

Unfortunately, the secrecy surrounding the project has been kept so tight that people with a real need to know - from the CIA to the commanding officer of USS Willowtrack - have not been told what is going on. One of them jumps to a false conclusion: as one of the characters puts it, their mission "is to be sold down the river because some bloody fool thinks we've kidnapped the Vice President."

Suddenly half the world is searching for the Devastation, the Veep, and the other characters in the story. Can they bring off the mission - and should they even try?

Despite all the utterly implausible elements to this story, it is gripping, memorable, and exciting, and I recommend it.

Other nautical thrillers by Geoffrey Jenkins, some of which feature characters who also appear in this book, include:

Scend of the Sea
A Twist of Sand
A Grue of Ice

"Hunter Killer" tells the story of how two RN war heroes manage to perfect and launch a new and potentially revolutionary form of rocket engine. Actually, the narrator is along for the ride - reluctantly - as the US navy closes in on them. It seems that the inventor and expected passenger of the missile also happens to be the vice-president of the United States. When the president falls ill, the US engages in a mad rush to locate the missile's inventor and prevent the launch of the new rocket. The narrator's friend, a fellow vet from the RN's submarine service, isn't about to see his hard work hit any snag - so he commandeers the rocket and shanghais the inventor and the narrator, and has his crew run about the Indian Ocean hoping he can set a good launch site for the missile before the Americans catch up.

This story was a bit of a dissappointment - the author gets all the geography right and makes sure that the cuisine enhances the flavor, but the plot itself seems underdone. The mad-race to launch the missile and elude the Americans seems over the top. Also, the cold war pressures seem completely missing, though you'd think they'd have much to do with the development of the nifty rocket. The biggest disspointment was how the book passed itself off as a submarine thriller, but our heroes leave the submarine fairly quickly and don't exactly exchange it for anything as fun. The "Hunter Killer" of the title may refer to the hero, who was a hunter killer of ships and crews in the war, but seems pressed to do more than just escape his pursuers now.

This is the fourth book I have read by this author, and the second best of those. It returns to the two key characters from A Twist Of Sand (which is the first Jenkins book, and the best I've read by him), and returns to some submarine action as well.

A Twist Of Sand is better in almost every respect, but the stuff does manage to work again in Hunter-Killer, buoyed by the one area in which it exceeds A Twist Of Sand: its straight-faced presentation of outrageous premises and events.

Like a lot of Jenkins's stuff, there's a bit of plodding and repetition here and there in the plot (but not too much in this one!); quite a bit of nautical action and terminology (actually, the terminology was mostly easy to follow this time around); and no shortage of descriptions of men respecting each other, admiring each other, and being absolutely astonished at the heroism of each other.

It's a fun book, especially if you like older adventure/thriller paperbacks. (POSSIBLE SPOILER, BUT NOT MUCH: It appears to have a possible connection to a certain James Bond film, though I won't mention any more so as to avoid spoiling anything.)

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