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| The Sixth of December Jim Lotz Markham, Ont.: Paperjacks. 1981 |
For your consideration, a Richard Rohmer-approved thriller that imagines Leon Trotsky responsible for the Halifax Explosion.
That's meant to be Trotsky on the front cover. Don't recognize him? How about here, in this detail from the back?
Don't believe me? Well, just read the cover copy. Blow it up if you wish.
No pun intended.
It's a freakin' great idea, though. Not for a Choose Your Own Adventure, or whatever the illustrator was up to, but still great.
ReplyDeleteBut why does Trotsky want help Germany to win World War I? Did he fall and hit his head?
Now, on the other hand, if he had to escape to STOP the plot...
The flag on the u-boat is wrong. Fools.
Agreed. There a freakin' great thriller to be made of Trotsky's internment. Who knows, maybe this is it.
DeleteBut why is he helping the Germans? Or is it that he's just trying to sow the seeds of revolution? How does that work in a POW camp? So many questions - I'm starting to think that I'll have to read this one.
Yep, the CYOA illustrator got the flag wrong - and the Mont-Blanc and the Imo, the collision, the explosion and Halifax Harbour. To think that there are even worse Paperjacks covers out there.
Good lord, I want to read this so much. Is it any good? I can imagine a whole series of books with Trotsky as a Red-subversive Forrest Gump.
ReplyDeleteFun to think of him working behind the scenes at the Winnipeg General Strike, drafting the Regina Manifesto and doing page layouts for The McGill Fortnightly. Arthur Currie could serve as his nemesis.
DeleteHmm!...That cover art brings to mind those Scholastic books I used to order in elementary school.
ReplyDeleteNot very frightening for the "Terrorist Plan of the Century"
Knuckles G.