A Code for Tomorrow [Hardcover]

John J. Gobbell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1999

Fresh from his exploits in Corregidor, Navy lieutenant Todd Ingram is back in this sequel to John J. Gobbell's The Last Lieutenant. As the war in the South Pacific heats up, Lieutenant Ingram gets a new assignment to the destroyer U.S.S. Howell, on which he will serve as executive officer. Thrown into two epic naval battles of 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 girlfriend, Army nurse Helen Durand, is trapped behind enemy lines, fighting for the resistance on Mindanao. With Soviet espionage activity hindering his attempted rescue of Helen, Lieutenant Ingram is at an impasse. In danger of losing both the woman he loves and a war in which he has fought so valiantly, Ingram puts his life on the line for world perilously close to collapse.

John J. Gobbell writes of what he knows. His expertise shines through in this technically exact and thoroughly riveting tale of the harrowing battles fought between imperial Japan and the United States in the South Pacific.

Editorial Reviews

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 316 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312205112
• ISBN-13: 978-0312205119
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #795,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JOHN J. GOBBELL is a former Navy Lieutenant who saw duty as a destroyer weapons officer. His ship served in the South China Sea, granting him membership in the exclusive ATonkin Gulf Yacht Club.@ As an executive recruiter, his clients include military/commercial aerospace companies giving him insight into character development under a historical thriller format. A Code For Tomorrow is the second of four stand-alone novels in the Todd Ingram series. Altogether, he has written six novels involving U.S. Navy action and is currently at work on his seventh. He and his wife Janine live in Newport Beach, California. He can be reached at [e-mail]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Code for Success, January 3, 2002

By 

Chris Suerdieck (Mattoon, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Code for Tomorrow (Hardcover)

It's a shame that John Gobbell hasn't found a wider audience for his reluctant hero Todd Ingram. Gobbell's first Ingram book, The Last Lieutenant was a rousing adventure set in the Phillipines during the fall of Manila and Corregidor.

This book picks up several months later and finds Ingram back at sea in time to participate in the naval action around Guadalcanal. The book then shifts back to the Phillipines.

What separates these stories from a lot of less remarkable WWII fiction is Gobbell's attention to detail and subtle blending of real persons and dead on historical detail into the stories. Two of the background stories going on in this book involve a Russian spy in San Francisco passing American secrets to the Japanese and the horrible state of the US Navy's torpedoes in the early part of the war.

Gobbell also has an great feel for description of all things naval and assumes that his readers have a passing knowledge themselves. He throws out terms like 1MC, TBS, engine repeater, etc., and doesn't fall into the trap of defining in detail every term he uses.

I am anxiously awaiting the next volume in this series, When Danger is Close, Whisper, which is due out in March.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Alternate History from the surface navy, April 19, 2002

By 

Jeffrey F. Bell (Honolulu, HI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Code For Tomorrow (Mass Market Paperback)

Others have commented on the literary merits of this book, so I'll address its complex intermixing of reality and fiction. The author is pretty accurate on minor (sometimes unnecessary) details, but warps the big picture a lot. A major element of this novel is the outrageously poor performance of US Navy torpedos during 1941-43. In the real WWII, the major impetus for exposing this incredible scandal came from the submarine sailors. The destroyer force seems to have been mostly oblivious to the worthlessness of their major weapons system, even after the unbelievable "battle" against the burning hulk of USS HORNET described in Chapter 39. Yet Gobbell has heroic destroyer sailors uncovering the torpedo scandal. Furthermore, the fundamental cause of the defects was the monopoly on torpedo design and testing held by the Navy's own torpedo factory. Gobbell has invented a private corporation to take the rap instead, for no apparent plot purpose. Loyalty to the old school can be carried too far. Still, the book provides a timely reminder that overwhelming superiority in wealth, science and technology won't win wars unless these factors are converted into viable weapons handled by trained and motivated personnel BEFORE the war starts.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting and fun to read, March 11, 2002

By 

J. Taylor (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Code For Tomorrow (Mass Market Paperback)

Like Gobbell's first book "The Last Lieutenant," "A Code for Tomorrow" is exciting and fun to read. The story moves at a quick pace and the action never stops. And any book that teaches me more about World War II is, in my opinion, a good book. "A Code for Tomorrow" accomplishes this, as Gobbell places Lt. Todd Ingram at the center of fierce naval battles at Santa Cruz and Cape Esperance.

Though the story is exciting and full of intrigue, I could not help but think that Gobbell based it on a James Bond movie. There are too many quick escapes and bizarre coincidences. For instance, a scene towards the end when Ingram and others are placed on a barge to be killed in a Japense torpedo practice exercise. That sounds more like a James Bond movie than anything have to do with World War II.

Still, I eagerly await Gobbell's next book "When Duty Whispers Low." Gobbell has a gift with his story-telling ability and knowledge of naval history. I very much recommend his books.