Happy to have filled in one of the few missing pieces of my Anthony Neil Smith reading. This is a novelette length tale that takes place during World War 2, and of course it is incredibly gory and grisly, as can be expected from this author. It is just the right length for this sort of thing--a little longer and it would have started to drag. Nice ending, in deeping with the author's seeming overall philosophy, which I'll leave you to deduce by reading his other books. Suffice to say that Smith is one of America's great overlooked authors. ( )