Twelve Seconds to Live

The Modern Naval Fiction Library

by Douglas Reeman

The mine is an impartial killer, and defusing it requires steady nerves, steady hands, and an intrepid flirtation with death. Haunted by the mine that destroyed his first command, H.M. Submarine Tornado, Lieutenant-Commander David Masters now defuses mines on land and teaches the same deadly science to others.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Military Fiction, War, World War II, Adventure

346 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

AKA Alexander Kent.
Douglas Edward Reeman was a British author who has written many historical fiction books on the Royal Navy, mainly set during either World War II or the Napoleonic Wars.

Reeman joined the Royal Navy in 1940, at the age of 16, and served during World War II and the Korean War. He eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant. In addition to being an author, Reeman has also taught the art of navigation for yachting and served as a technical advisor for films. Douglas married author Kimberley Jordan Reeman in 1985.

Reeman's debut novel, A Prayer for the Ship was published in 1958. His pseudonym Alexander Kent was the name of a friend and naval officer who died during the Second World War. Reeman is most famous for his series of Napoleonic naval stories, whose central character is Richard Bolitho, and, later, his nephew, Adam. He also wrote a series of novels about several generations of the Blackwood family who served in the Royal Marines from the 1850s to the 1970s, and a non-fiction account of his World War II experiences, D-Day : A Personal Reminiscence (1984).

Series:
* Blackwood Family

Reviews

[Ron Wroblewski]

This is the last of the 37 books of naval fiction that Reeman wrote under his own name. that I have finished. All were in the 20th century. I am half way through the books he wrote about the British Navy in time of sail.
In his books Reeman often switches from one person to another without you realizing it, even if they are in different location. Have to go back to read those areas again to see who is saying what. This books is about British Navel personnel who laid and also disabled mines during WWII. It has his normal romances and ladies who dress in green. A minority of the book concerns boats at sea. Some of the book is about disabling unexploded bombs and mines on land. An ok book.

[KOMET]

TWELVE SECONDS TO LIVE. The title says it all. In the opening pages of the novel, a naval officer in the Royal Navy's Special Countermeasures Branch is endeavoring to defuse a mine in a seaside area of Southern England, when something goes amiss, and 12 seconds later, the officer's life becomes forfeit.

The novel itself is a set of loosely interconnected stories centered at a sprawling naval base in England during the late summer and autumn of 1943. One of these stories illustrates the derring-do, bravery, and risks run by a crew of an MTB (motor torpedo boat) taking part in nocturnal minelaying missions across the Channel off the coast of German-occupied France. Another story focuses on the high risks borne by a naval officer and his assistant in defusing a mine (nicknamed "the beast") uncovered in a crashed German bomber following a nightly bombing raid. There is also another story in the novel centered upon a lieutenant-commander (David Masters), who had briefly served on submarines before being reassigned to shore duties which entailed the defusing of mines, for which he had acquired a special knowledge and skill - he taught this "deadly science to others."

Each of these stories give the novel an intensity and immediacy to, not only the thrills of perils of wartime action on the high seas and the stresses of securing an area ashore where a mine has been located and a team from the Special Countermeasures Branch then goes about trying to defuse said mine -- but also highlights the fragility of life and romance in wartime.

TWELVE SECONDS TO LIVE is gripping stuff, one of the best wartime novels I've read in a long time.

[Mark Green]

Quite enjoyable. Not sure of the validity of the weapons described on the German side but maybe I just didn't know about them. The love interest in these books always seem a bit "Brief Encounters" but maybe thats the way it was. Not one of the best in my view.

[Anna]

Waging war is hard, but commanding submarine ain't easy cause of mines.

[Nigel]

This was an Okay book, but is never going to be one of my favourite Reeman stories. Most of Reeman's story have a clear plot focussing on the crew of a single vessel and usually on one main character. In Twelve Seconds to Live however the plot continually jumps from a Coastal Force Minelayer to the land base bomb disposal teams as they attempt to defuse the many magnetic mines being dropped by the Germans. I think for me it was this constant switching which led to a poorer story as just when tension could have continued to build, the story jumped to the other track. Not really a bad story per se just no one of his best and certainly not for me.

[Ron Baumer]

This was a different type of novel by Reeman. While many of his WW2 novels centers around a single main character, this one had several main stories intertwined around each other. The action is fast paced and will hold your attention.

The narrator for this audiobook was not the same one that did many of Reeman's previous novels. While the narrator did a good job, it was not the same as others.

[F. Michael McCarty]

Very fine tale...

This novel give a look into the usually untold story of the mine warfare operations along the channel coast during WWII. It Delves into the operations of motor launches and mine layers, and the experimental departments involved in sea mines and in "making safe" those dropped by the Germans. Really fine read.

[Roger St Jean]

I like the theme and war era
I get confused with the many characters and relationships
And the actual action is brief or described later
So to find these amazing books by this gifted author and then find it a bit chewy read is disappointing

[Stuart Austwick]

Good book but a bit disjointed. Still a decent read.

[Derek Raymond Tuffin]

Gripping read

Great book,plenty going on ~ keeps your attention remembering who is who.
Enjoy reading Douglas Reeman, which one next ?

[johnwood]

Very good could not put it down.The end could have been better but on the hole a very good read

[PAUL CONNOLLY]

good read

very good read gives you the sense of what really happened during this time. i will be reading more of his works.

[TheIron Paw]

A fascinating portrayal of mine countermeasures and coastal defence actions during WWII. The story line is somewhat disjointed and the ending is a little too pat, but the setting is worth the read. I found Reeman's writing style in this novel hard to follow (I don't recall this in his other books): he tended to switch perspectives frequently while using pronouns which weren't clear who they referred to. Could this be a literary device to convey a sense of disjointed reality when dismantling mines?

[Dan]

An interesting but somewhat disappointing book about WWII British Navy. He develops some very interesting characters and gets you involved in them, but the action scenes don't work, there is little technical detail, and then he sort of runs out of steam and the story lines collapse at the end.

[Alex]

Strangely compelling, yet I found it slightly odd. It's a story more about connected people than a single event. Yet as usual it was gripping and well written, especially the characterisation which was exceptional.
I still have absolutely no idea about the title though!

[Simon]

Great boys own adventure about WW2 bomb disposal and the MTBs

[Thom]

Read in 2005