Michael Keefe was a captain in the

Signal Corps. He was red-headed

and six foot one and he worked for

a lieutenant colonel who was at-

most six feet tall and was named

Margaret Eriksen and was a dish

known as Tiny.

Mike had been in Hawaii, enjoy-

ing himself, when he got orders to

take the first available transporta-

tion to Washington and then to re-

port to the U.S. Military Academy

at West Point.

Tiny briefed him on his way to

West Point. "What do you know

about the Bostwicks?" she asked.

He said, "Not much."

But he learned a lot about them

before he was through. General

Bostwick had just died, and his son-

in-law was Senator Colville, a top

man in the field of military affairs.

Anne Bostwick was the Senator s

daughter and her husband was

Captain Bostwick, who was missing

in action in Vietnam, and someone

had just sent Anne a box with two

gold rings in it--a wedding band and a West Point class ring. Some-

one had also sent Senator Colville

a note, marked "Very confidential."

The note read, "Place classified ad

in next Sunday New York Times

offering 1957 Edsel sedan for sale.

Give local phone number to call.

The cognition word, radio. Re-

sponse word, photo. "

Senator Colville was a very im-

portant man. And he said to Tiny,

"Colonel Eriksen, you were brought

here because you were the person

recommended by her superiors as

best qualified. You and Captain

Keefe have a track record."

All, it seems, that Tiny and Mike

had to do was to find out if Captain

Bostwick and a Sergeant Bailey,

who apparently was with him, were

dead or alive, where they were, and,

if alive, to rescue them without in-

volving the Army or the U.S.

An interesting mission, A danger-

ous mission. And one more com-

plicated than even such old hands

as Tiny and Mike could have imag-

ined, since it involved many desper-

ate people including a remarkable

young woman named Miss Binh

and the Blue Star.

MICHAEL WOLFE has used effectively

the background of post-war torn

Vietnam in his previous books. This

may be one of his most effective

novels set in that part of the world.