Books: Test at Sea

THE GOOD SHEPHERD (310 pp.)—C. S. Forester—Little, Brown ($3.95).

This book again proves that Cecil Scott Forester is the best living writer about the sea. It is a war novel (first published in LIFE) that neither whines nor rails nor waves flags, but sticks tersely to its theme. Its hero, Commander George Krause, U.S.N., is indeed a good shepherd. His flock is a convoy of 37 merchant ships zigzagging across the Atlantic in 1942. To herd them safely to harbor in England, Krause has only four escort vessels, one of which he personally commands....