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Beach Head
Book by Case, C. E.
496 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 1983
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February 6, 2024
Let me preface this review by saying that this book is Ensan Case, Wingmen's author second attempt at publishing. Now under the pseudonim C.E Case which on here is mistakenly attached to another author of the same name, hah.
This extremely rare book from 1983 has been digitalized by a diehard fan of the author and i'm very thankful for their hard work to make this available to any other fan, like me, who has been curious about this book ever since the author mentioning it in an old interview.
Like Wingmen, this book is settled in WWII, but aimed towards a mainstream audience (as mainstream as WWII fiction can get tbh); from the perspective of Carl Randal, a journalist that becomes a war correspondent for his father's San Francisco newspaper. He gets to meet different type of soldiers and higher ups, while doing so, discovers the secret agenda of one of the commanders he mets had and later on witnesses the invasion of some islands far in the pacific that impacts severely on his view on war. Simultaneosly, on the japanese side, we follow the journey of Captain Tadaichi Moro, who's trying to bring attention to his theory that the americans have broken the japanese secret code. The empire doesn't receive very well this information and sends Moro off away on an inspection tour to some islands to both 'test the theory' and just as an excuse to silence him.
These two threads will interwind in the late 60's when journalist Augie Warrender is given the mission to discover what troubled Elizabeth Horton-Smythe's husband for many years to the point of dying of a stroke after he read a seemingly unimportant article about WWII in the newspaper. Little did she know that she was about to uncover information the US goverment will do everything to keep secret.
Soooo...that's the resume of the book without spoiling anything. Uhm...as for what i thought about this book...i sincerely don't know how to rate it because...while i found the main characters pretty unlikeable, especially Carl...i liked the first half because's Carl and Captain Moro's journey was compelling. However i found the second half a drag that tried too hard to be some kind of thriller but fell short by the introduction of many POVs that ultimately brought the story down by overexplaining the situation. I feel this needed less POVs and a bit of editing.
For a second book from the author, it's surprising this book didn't have the well rounded characterizations of Wingmen, the only memorable character i can think of is Sergeant Adrian but he was made to truly stand out from the rest so i don't think he counts much?? I suspect the author tried too hard to make this book marketable he ended up giving his characters, especially the ones from the second part, a set of popular characteristics in the thriller genre at the time and ended with an uninspiring bunch that you had to follow despite not caring about their whereabouts. And the events felt a bit over the top, i had to suspend my disbelieve at times. On the bright side, i liked the ending, that sure didn't feel unrealistic haha.
So yeah, i think Ensan Case had potential, just needed to aim more for just writting whatever he wanted and not be let down by the lack of sales. It's understanable tho.
This extremely rare book from 1983 has been digitalized by a diehard fan of the author and i'm very thankful for their hard work to make this available to any other fan, like me, who has been curious about this book ever since the author mentioning it in an old interview.
Like Wingmen, this book is settled in WWII, but aimed towards a mainstream audience (as mainstream as WWII fiction can get tbh); from the perspective of Carl Randal, a journalist that becomes a war correspondent for his father's San Francisco newspaper. He gets to meet different type of soldiers and higher ups, while doing so, discovers the secret agenda of one of the commanders he mets had and later on witnesses the invasion of some islands far in the pacific that impacts severely on his view on war. Simultaneosly, on the japanese side, we follow the journey of Captain Tadaichi Moro, who's trying to bring attention to his theory that the americans have broken the japanese secret code. The empire doesn't receive very well this information and sends Moro off away on an inspection tour to some islands to both 'test the theory' and just as an excuse to silence him.
These two threads will interwind in the late 60's when journalist Augie Warrender is given the mission to discover what troubled Elizabeth Horton-Smythe's husband for many years to the point of dying of a stroke after he read a seemingly unimportant article about WWII in the newspaper. Little did she know that she was about to uncover information the US goverment will do everything to keep secret.
Soooo...that's the resume of the book without spoiling anything. Uhm...as for what i thought about this book...i sincerely don't know how to rate it because...while i found the main characters pretty unlikeable, especially Carl...i liked the first half because's Carl and Captain Moro's journey was compelling. However i found the second half a drag that tried too hard to be some kind of thriller but fell short by the introduction of many POVs that ultimately brought the story down by overexplaining the situation. I feel this needed less POVs and a bit of editing.
For a second book from the author, it's surprising this book didn't have the well rounded characterizations of Wingmen, the only memorable character i can think of is Sergeant Adrian but he was made to truly stand out from the rest so i don't think he counts much?? I suspect the author tried too hard to make this book marketable he ended up giving his characters, especially the ones from the second part, a set of popular characteristics in the thriller genre at the time and ended with an uninspiring bunch that you had to follow despite not caring about their whereabouts. And the events felt a bit over the top, i had to suspend my disbelieve at times. On the bright side, i liked the ending, that sure didn't feel unrealistic haha.
So yeah, i think Ensan Case had potential, just needed to aim more for just writting whatever he wanted and not be let down by the lack of sales. It's understanable tho.
Displaying 1 of 1 review