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Twilight's Last Gleaming
No one writes a political thriller like Walter Wager. No one writes a psychological thriller like Walter Wager. In TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING, he checks both boxes, and the result will keep you reading through to sunrise.
A retired general takes over a missile silo in the Badlands. His threat is to provoke a World War, launching deadly ordnance, unless the President is willing to reveal everything about a secret meeting he had during the Vietnam War.
The situation is explosive, and so is the truth. Before the day is done, one man has his only shot at redemption—and countless lives hang in the balance.
A retired general takes over a missile silo in the Badlands. His threat is to provoke a World War, launching deadly ordnance, unless the President is willing to reveal everything about a secret meeting he had during the Vietnam War.
The situation is explosive, and so is the truth. Before the day is done, one man has his only shot at redemption—and countless lives hang in the balance.
319 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 1, 1972
18 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Walter Wager
55 books20 followersWager was best known as an author of mystery and spy fiction; his works included 58 Minutes (1987), whose story was used as the basis of the action film Die Hard 2 in 1990. Two of his other novels became major motion pictures in 1977: Viper Three (1972), which was released as Twilight's Last Gleaming, and Telefon (1975). Wager wrote a number of original novels in the 1960s under the pseudonym "John Tiger" that were based on the TV series I Spy and Mission: Impossible.
Born Walter Herman Wager in the Bronx, NY, he was the son of Russian immigrants, and he attended Columbia College at Columbia University. He graduated in 1944 and later earned a law degree from Harvard; the practice of law interested him less than aviation, however, and Wager subsequently entered a fellowship program at Northwestern University through which he earned a degree in aviation law. He attended the Sorbonne for a year under a Fulbright scholarship at the end of the 1940s, and then turned his attention to earning a living. Wager spent the early '50s working as an aviation law consultant to the government of Israel, and from there moved to an editorial job at the United Nations, where he oversaw the editing of that organization's myriad publications. His interest in writing got him into radio at the tail-end of that medium's era of prominence, authoring scripts, and in his spare time he wrote stories.
He was also a writer and producer for CBS Radio, CBS television, and NBC television and was editor-in-chief of Playbill from 1963 to 1966. In addition, Wager worked in public relations for ASCAP and the University of Bridgeport.
Born Walter Herman Wager in the Bronx, NY, he was the son of Russian immigrants, and he attended Columbia College at Columbia University. He graduated in 1944 and later earned a law degree from Harvard; the practice of law interested him less than aviation, however, and Wager subsequently entered a fellowship program at Northwestern University through which he earned a degree in aviation law. He attended the Sorbonne for a year under a Fulbright scholarship at the end of the 1940s, and then turned his attention to earning a living. Wager spent the early '50s working as an aviation law consultant to the government of Israel, and from there moved to an editorial job at the United Nations, where he oversaw the editing of that organization's myriad publications. His interest in writing got him into radio at the tail-end of that medium's era of prominence, authoring scripts, and in his spare time he wrote stories.
He was also a writer and producer for CBS Radio, CBS television, and NBC television and was editor-in-chief of Playbill from 1963 to 1966. In addition, Wager worked in public relations for ASCAP and the University of Bridgeport.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 24, 2017
VIPER THREE, by Walter Wager, is a book that never goes away from the headlines of today's news. I had watched the movie called," In the Twilight's Last Gleaming" and was wanting to read this book from movie's base. It has 5 prisoners escaping from death row, and bluffing their way into a Minuteman Base. One of the escapees was a former commander of the missile's site. It can be from a news story today.
December 16, 2018
Tight thrillrr
Very interesting idea for taking over a missile silo. Watching the President, military and the convicts interaction being a strong fill to the story. What did the military want to do? Would the convicts be able to stick it out? How would the President handle this horror? I
Great story except, what did the Russians add to the story? The President seemed to ignore it. Unneeded information
Very interesting idea for taking over a missile silo. Watching the President, military and the convicts interaction being a strong fill to the story. What did the military want to do? Would the convicts be able to stick it out? How would the President handle this horror? I
Great story except, what did the Russians add to the story? The President seemed to ignore it. Unneeded information
September 12, 2021
So this is the book that they based the movie “Twilights Last Gleaming” on. I had just watched the movie so I was interested to see if the book fleshed out the story. The book definitely does that but while the basic premise is the same, the overall story is substantially different. A very interesting book that is definitely a product of its time, this is a great yarn for reading on a trip.
October 6, 2017
Read in the 70s
September 26, 2018
Closer to 3.5. Well written and better than the movie, though it lacks the punch of the latter's ending.
March 16, 2019
very fast read, very enjoyable. Not at all a techno read.
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October 23, 2008A Wag
July 13, 2012
Read it when I was still in high school, one of my favorite all time books. Maybe its part nostalga, but how could anyone give this book less than a 4? A long time ago.
May 9, 2016
Thriller - Five escaped convicts capture a nuclear missle silo.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews