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Title: A slow-going soft-boiled novel
Review: The excellent, gripping first chapter of NIGHT WALKER is sadly the best part of the book. The tale slows down considerably and shifts into a rather muddled mess afterward. A Navy officer is called back to active duty and gets a ride while hitchhiking only to be attacked by his presumed samaritan. With a battered, bandaged face he is forced to play the role of his attacker, a ruse he goes along with for no good reason other than the fact that he just doesn't want to go back into the military.A vague mystery unfurls as he's drawn into a web of deceit by his "wife", a nefarious doctor, and his innocent neighbor who suspects the truth but doesn't know what to do about it. There's some hooey about communists, drop-off points for Washington attaches, and other dubious plot points, but the worst is the psychological hokum used to explain away a major contrivance.
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