
The penultimate book on my "reread Heinlein" project! One to go!
It's from 1985, and my very beat-up copy says I shelled out $16.20 for the hardcover to Barnes & Noble back then. I'm pretty sure I read it once back then, and never again until now. I think it's safe to say it's for Heinlein fans only.
It kicks off with a (literal) bang, as a stranger accosts the narrator, Colonel Colin Campbell, in a restaurant. He wants Campbell to kill a guy. "But Tolliver must die by noon Sunday or we'll all be dead!" And mere seconds later the stranger is shot dead himself by an unknown assassin!
That's on the second page of the book's first chapter.
This sets Campbell off on a wild adventure, accompanied by a lady he knows as "Gwen Novak". For some reason, they find themselves in danger of assassination themselves, as a host of baddies attempt to thwart their mission. A mission that Campbell doesn't know exists until much later.
I said this was for Heinlein fans only. Without spoilers: it turns out to (kinda) rely on knowledge of Heinlein's ouvré.
In addition, readers will have to put up with a lot of Heinlein-style banter, incessant references to boinking, and rambling first-person narration, all turned up to eleven.
I found the ending to be unsatisfying, but … you know, Heinlein paid his dues, and at this stage of his life, was entitled to write what he wanted.