Limit of Darkness

A twenty-four hour span in the routine of Tarpedo 11, based at Henderson Field, the chief value of which lies in Hunt's uncanny perceptiveness of relaying mood, psychology, pace as well as incident between the rising sun of one day and the next. One gets sharply etched profiles of Larry McRae, the leader, Ben Lambert, next in command, and the men down the line to Babe, ensign and fresh out and scared. One gets flashbacks of their homes, of the women they loved, through mail, coming and going, and through stream of consciousness handling of their thoughts as they wait for the time of take-off on a ""strike"", as they fan out beyond the strip to Kahill, Pupukuna, Lamual, Ervents, etc. Not as powerful a book as East Of Farewell (to my mind one of the finest and most neglected books which the war has produced). There the destroyer is the focus of the tale -- its complement of men are seen in relation to the ship; here the focus is on the men rather than the unit, a less original project, but one which again gives Hunt scope for a very distinguished talent. (Kirkus Review)


Genre: Thriller