the prisoner's expressionless appearance. An attempt was actually made to replace Martino with a Soviet agent (his former MIT roommate, who knows him well enough to take on the role), and who was to disappear in a staged air crash, but this fails. Thus, at the end of the book the mystery is resolved to the reader's satisfaction: the man is indeed Lucas Martino, not a Soviet agent, and he is perfectly willing to resume his scientific work. But since the Western authorities cannot be sure of that, he will never be allowed near sensitive material again; rather, he is doomed to live out the rest of his life as an obscure farmer, under a shadow of suspicion that he will never be able to dispel. The treatment he received on his return, the endless suspicion and hostility, transformed him: he is indeed no longer the Lucas Martino he was before the accident, hence the mordant quality of his final reply to Rogers. As made evident by one of the titles of the film adaptation, The Man in the Steel Mask, the book is loosely inspired by the historical mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask in the 18th century. Characters Lucas Martino, a kidnapped physicist Shawn Rogers, the Allied intelligence agent assigned to determine the identity of the released man Anastas Azarin, the Soviet agent who interrogates Martino Film adaptation The novel was adapted into a 1974 film of the same name directed by Jack Gold and starring Elliott Gould, Trevor Howard, and Joseph Bova. Sources References External links http://www.trashfiction.co.uk/who.html 1958 American novels American novels adapted into films 1958 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Novels set during the Cold War Fictional cyborgs Novels republished in the Library of America Science fiction novels adapted into films Pyramid Books books