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Pieces of the Game
Minor wear on edges of covers. Pages are clean with light tanning due to age.
Mass Market Paperback
Published January 1, 1960
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 29, 2024
Pieces of the Game (1960) (Gold Medal # s1008) (republished by Cutting Edge) by Lee Gifford is a top-notch men’s adventure/wartime novel. Gifford is a bit of an enigma as there do not appear to be other books published under that byline and he writes like a consummate professional. The format of the book is that there is a wartime back story which forms the heart of the novel and a more present-day (the book was published in 1960 fifteen years after the war) thriller about literally buried treasure which essentially wraps around the backstory. In the hands of a less nimble writer, this format might not have worked, but Gifford does an excellent job.
As our story opens, James Sheridan is working in San Francisco and has been assigned a task of going to Manila in the Phillipines to secure a deal to trade in pearls. He says he does not really want to take the trip because he has had his fill of Manila and then some. The opening is par for the course of a men’s international adventure novel with Sheridan meeting a beautiful woman (Ellen Roberts)on the plane and finding out that they are heading for the same hotel. But, as he reminds us readers, Sheridan has a “whirling kaledioscope of memories; the green hell of Bataan’s jungles, the numbing shock of defea”t on the white rock of Corregidor, the roaring engine of a PT boat that exploded in death and fire.” He also has memories of Tulana, shy, beautiful, a singer at the hotel he is headed to now, who he spent fruitless months searching for after the war ended. The hotel he is headed to is where he stayed before he joined up after Pearl Harbor, the Casa Grande, operated then and now by Jacques Costeau. No, it is not the internationally famous sea diver and oceanographer, but a name doppelganger. Perhaps in 1960, the name was unremarkable as the famous television series had not yet begun to air.
The theme of the novel, reflected in the title, is a chess game, and Sheridan has been invited once again to play the great game with his wartime nemesis Colonel Yamata who still has his eyes on the prize, seven million dollars worth of silver Phillipine pesos to be had for the taking from the bottom of Caballo Bay. Colonel Yamata is accompanied by his assistant, Sergeant Takahito.
It turns out that, when the American and Phillipine allies retreated to Correggidor and then surrendered, resulting in the Bataan death march, Sheridan had been among the captured. As one who speaks numerous languages, he was thought to be handy to a mission led by Yamata, that mission being to salvage the millions of dollars in silver that had been taken from the Bank of Manila and scattered beneath the bay by the American armed forces before their final surrender. With very little equipment, Yamata is sending American divers down to get the silver, but Sheridan sees Yamata is playing a deadly game to slow the salvage operation so that he might, after the war, return and secure the silver treasure for himself. It is a high-stakes wartime thriller as the few American divers try to survive the operation and secure a plan for escape the bay from which escape is impossible and from which thousands of POWs perished in long death marches.
Through the war, Sheridan plays chess with Yamata as an allegory for the chess match they play in reality. And now having returned to Manila (or tricked into returning as the possible only one who would still know the location of the buried treasure), Sheridan once again is playing a life-and-death chess match against Yamata and his evil henchman Takahito.
This is a superb novel, thrilling and exciting from start to finish.
As our story opens, James Sheridan is working in San Francisco and has been assigned a task of going to Manila in the Phillipines to secure a deal to trade in pearls. He says he does not really want to take the trip because he has had his fill of Manila and then some. The opening is par for the course of a men’s international adventure novel with Sheridan meeting a beautiful woman (Ellen Roberts)on the plane and finding out that they are heading for the same hotel. But, as he reminds us readers, Sheridan has a “whirling kaledioscope of memories; the green hell of Bataan’s jungles, the numbing shock of defea”t on the white rock of Corregidor, the roaring engine of a PT boat that exploded in death and fire.” He also has memories of Tulana, shy, beautiful, a singer at the hotel he is headed to now, who he spent fruitless months searching for after the war ended. The hotel he is headed to is where he stayed before he joined up after Pearl Harbor, the Casa Grande, operated then and now by Jacques Costeau. No, it is not the internationally famous sea diver and oceanographer, but a name doppelganger. Perhaps in 1960, the name was unremarkable as the famous television series had not yet begun to air.
The theme of the novel, reflected in the title, is a chess game, and Sheridan has been invited once again to play the great game with his wartime nemesis Colonel Yamata who still has his eyes on the prize, seven million dollars worth of silver Phillipine pesos to be had for the taking from the bottom of Caballo Bay. Colonel Yamata is accompanied by his assistant, Sergeant Takahito.
It turns out that, when the American and Phillipine allies retreated to Correggidor and then surrendered, resulting in the Bataan death march, Sheridan had been among the captured. As one who speaks numerous languages, he was thought to be handy to a mission led by Yamata, that mission being to salvage the millions of dollars in silver that had been taken from the Bank of Manila and scattered beneath the bay by the American armed forces before their final surrender. With very little equipment, Yamata is sending American divers down to get the silver, but Sheridan sees Yamata is playing a deadly game to slow the salvage operation so that he might, after the war, return and secure the silver treasure for himself. It is a high-stakes wartime thriller as the few American divers try to survive the operation and secure a plan for escape the bay from which escape is impossible and from which thousands of POWs perished in long death marches.
Through the war, Sheridan plays chess with Yamata as an allegory for the chess match they play in reality. And now having returned to Manila (or tricked into returning as the possible only one who would still know the location of the buried treasure), Sheridan once again is playing a life-and-death chess match against Yamata and his evil henchman Takahito.
This is a superb novel, thrilling and exciting from start to finish.
July 18, 2020
Pulp
Good fifties pulp. Not a classic but fun. A quick read, retro in the extreme. Enjoy. Recommended. Thanks to Cutting Edge Press for bringing this one back( I have the original gold medal editions I
Good fifties pulp. Not a classic but fun. A quick read, retro in the extreme. Enjoy. Recommended. Thanks to Cutting Edge Press for bringing this one back( I have the original gold medal editions I
February 8, 2025
This was some pretty darn good paperback pulp with tough guys trying to get through tougher times graced with some really good prose.
Jim Sheridan fought in the Pacific during WWII where he was captured and, with a ragtag bunch of other tough guys, forced by the Japanese to reclaim a trove of silver coins that were dumped into the depths of a Philippine bay. They didn't get all the silver then, and hid some of it in an underwater cave. Now, more than a decade later, he finds himself face to face with the Japanese colonel who oversaw the salvaging operation and wants Jim to finish the job.
The bulk of this novel takes place in WWII, with the contemporary scenes acting as a framing device. The writing is pretty darn good. Gifford can turn a good phrase, but on top of that, he writes in a way that makes you believe everything. I couldn't help but think that some of the book had to be autobiographical, because the details and emotional content rang so true. Alas, there appears to be no biographical information about the author out there, and this is the only book he ever wrote, so who knows if any of this adventure was born from experience.
The WWII portion is definitely the stronger part. The framing around it feels a little less real, but it's not unsatisfying. I'm sure that, in a couple dozen years, when I've forgotten all the details, I'll happily come back to this book and immerse myself again in the sweaty Philippines of WWII and their dark, treasure-laden seas.
Jim Sheridan fought in the Pacific during WWII where he was captured and, with a ragtag bunch of other tough guys, forced by the Japanese to reclaim a trove of silver coins that were dumped into the depths of a Philippine bay. They didn't get all the silver then, and hid some of it in an underwater cave. Now, more than a decade later, he finds himself face to face with the Japanese colonel who oversaw the salvaging operation and wants Jim to finish the job.
The bulk of this novel takes place in WWII, with the contemporary scenes acting as a framing device. The writing is pretty darn good. Gifford can turn a good phrase, but on top of that, he writes in a way that makes you believe everything. I couldn't help but think that some of the book had to be autobiographical, because the details and emotional content rang so true. Alas, there appears to be no biographical information about the author out there, and this is the only book he ever wrote, so who knows if any of this adventure was born from experience.
The WWII portion is definitely the stronger part. The framing around it feels a little less real, but it's not unsatisfying. I'm sure that, in a couple dozen years, when I've forgotten all the details, I'll happily come back to this book and immerse myself again in the sweaty Philippines of WWII and their dark, treasure-laden seas.
December 21, 2024
There’s a great story here, actually three great ones.
But there’s an old saying in football: if you have two quarterbacks, you don’t really have the one, and that’s pretty much true here as well.
I’m not sure where to start as I review this, and I think Gifford may have had the same problem as he wrote it.
As it is, he begins with WWII vet – and one-time POW in the Philippines – Jim Sheridan as he heads back to the Philippines on what he believes is his firm’s opportunity to purchase pearls. When he gets there, conveniently having met a siren of a nightclub singer who (15 years younger than he is) flashes her interest in him, he finds himself drawn back into a life he thought he’d left behind. We learn, slowly,
That’s a pretty intriguing story, I think – the story of a man who comes back to a place where he suffered as a young man.
The bulk of this novel, though, deals with a flashback to his time in the war. And that’s a pretty good story, too.
Sheridan fights until the bitter end when, hit by a shell, he’s taken prisoner, healed up, and compelled by a would-be chess-playing Japanese admiral to be part of a team of Americans doing deep dives in the bay. That chess metaphor takes on gradual importance – as the title suggests – with the idea that each American is a pawn, someone to be sacrificed as necessary for the larger “game.”
There’s potential for real intrigue there, and – to be honest – this is both the best and most substantial part of the book. I’d have preferred more detail – this is always a trim novel – but there are some striking moments and real tension. It’s chilling to read about the primitive technology that protected them underwater, and there’s nice tension as they discover more and more of the material at the ocean floor.
There’s a third story as well.
The ultimate problem, then, is that we don’t get enough of any of this.
I found this one after an enthusiastic review by a Goodreads friend. (Thanks, Dave.) It’s interesting to read what was likely cutting-edge adventure noir from 1960. It doesn’t hold up for me as it did for Dave, but no complaints – still a lot of fun.
But there’s an old saying in football: if you have two quarterbacks, you don’t really have the one, and that’s pretty much true here as well.
I’m not sure where to start as I review this, and I think Gifford may have had the same problem as he wrote it.
As it is, he begins with WWII vet – and one-time POW in the Philippines – Jim Sheridan as he heads back to the Philippines on what he believes is his firm’s opportunity to purchase pearls. When he gets there, conveniently having met a siren of a nightclub singer who (15 years younger than he is) flashes her interest in him, he finds himself drawn back into a life he thought he’d left behind. We learn, slowly,
That’s a pretty intriguing story, I think – the story of a man who comes back to a place where he suffered as a young man.
The bulk of this novel, though, deals with a flashback to his time in the war. And that’s a pretty good story, too.
Sheridan fights until the bitter end when, hit by a shell, he’s taken prisoner, healed up, and compelled by a would-be chess-playing Japanese admiral to be part of a team of Americans doing deep dives in the bay. That chess metaphor takes on gradual importance – as the title suggests – with the idea that each American is a pawn, someone to be sacrificed as necessary for the larger “game.”
There’s potential for real intrigue there, and – to be honest – this is both the best and most substantial part of the book. I’d have preferred more detail – this is always a trim novel – but there are some striking moments and real tension. It’s chilling to read about the primitive technology that protected them underwater, and there’s nice tension as they discover more and more of the material at the ocean floor.
There’s a third story as well.
The ultimate problem, then, is that we don’t get enough of any of this.
I found this one after an enthusiastic review by a Goodreads friend. (Thanks, Dave.) It’s interesting to read what was likely cutting-edge adventure noir from 1960. It doesn’t hold up for me as it did for Dave, but no complaints – still a lot of fun.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews