story, and many observations I would like to make are meaningless unless the reader knows how the story ends. To reveal this is, I believe, the author's and not the reviewer's privilege.
One basic complaint I would have with this novel lies in the plot itself, or, to be more specific, in the nature of the incidents which precipitate the story. According to the dust jacket, the author, spent 17 years in G-2, and he may well be drawing his basic outline (or perhaps even the entire tale) from an actual case or cases he has known. If this is true. then I am about to make a fool of myself by saying that some of the situations created in this novel are just too improbable to be believable. It may be, however, that once again "truth is stranger than fiction."
Mr. Cameron has done a splendid job of developing some of his minor characters, especially the Embassy secretary who is assigned to record the investigation and finds that, whether Sutton is or is not guilty, she is still irresistibly drawn to him because of his maleness, and he has drawn some excellent portraits of
certain Army "types." Unfortunately the author has fallen far short of doing the same thing with his two principal characters. Colonel Sutton himself we never really get to know. It may be that the author intended that this should be so. To me, it seems regrettable that the reader, be he sympathetic or unsympathetic, is given no opportunity to form an opinion of his own regarding Colonel Sutton. The result is, I am afraid, one doesn't quite care. In Larry Adams, the author has given us a frightening picture of what may or may not be a typical "queer chasing" investigator, but the personality and character of Larry Adams the man do not emerge even though considerable space is devoted to an airing of his personal problems.
The sum up: read THE CASE AGAINST COLONEL SUTTON by all means. It is not only fascinating reading, but it is a must book for all those in governmental or military service who might just possibly some day find themselves across the table from a Larry Adams.
-Hank Richardson.
ONE INSTITUTE OF HOMOPHILE STUDIES
Schedule of Classes for Fall 1961 Semester
Ends January 25, 1962
INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF HOMOSEXUALITY
Opened September 11
HS 120
HS 136
WRITING FOR HOMOPHILE PUBLICATION
HS 140
LIBRARY WORKSHOP
HS 200
ADVANCED SURVEY OF HOMOPHILE STUDIES
Write for Further Particulars, 232 South Hill Street, Los Angeles, Calif. 1961 Fall Lecture Series to be announced.
Midwinter Institute, Jan. 1962
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