the camp over to German forces. The tunnel can just barely be completed in the next few hours—will they then be able to evacuate the entire camp before the Germans arrive? The final chapters of the book relate the adventures of three escaped officers as they attempt to traverse the Italian countryside and reach the safety of the Allied lines. Gilbert himself, in real life, escaped with two fellow officers, and the book is dedicated to the actual names of those officers. The US version of the novel, The Danger Within, ends with the breakout from the camp, and omits (except as a half-page postscript) the journey through Italy. The film Danger Within also ends with the breakout. Appraisal An appraisal some years after its publication comes from Barzun and Taylor's encyclopedic Catalogue of Crime:A superb, though harrowing, story of murder in a prisoner-of-war camp in northern Italy towards the end of the last world war. The skill with which suspense is kept up during a series of trivial incidents related to oppression and plans of escape is equaled only by the management of a large number of characters, Italian and English. Notes External links 1952 British novels British mystery novels British novels adapted into films Hodder & Stoughton books Novels by Michael Gilbert