Glasshouse Gang #3

 

Benghazi Breakout (1966) is the third of the four Glasshouse Gang books. Be wary of the current ebook reprints, which incorrectly lists it as second.

 

 John Offer and his Glasshouse Gang, though officially deserters and criminals, are once again given temporary immunity from arrest in exchange for carrying out a mission. In this case, that mission would be to enter the German-held city of Benghazi and rescue two captured British Generals.

 

History tells us the Gang will not be successful--the generals are real-life characters and were not rescued before being taken to a POW camp in Italy. (Brief Pause to Brag: My first published work was an article on one of those generals: Richard O'Connor. O'Connor eventually escaped on his own in 1943.)

 

But the Gang has another reason for going to Benghazi. A couple of their comrades--captured during the oil depot raid in the last book--are being held there by the SS. Offer is determined to free them.

 

This is the premise for another fast-paced and intensely exciting entry in this unusual series. Offer has developed into a great lead protagonist. Despite his status as a crook and some sociopathic attitudes, he is smart; able to improvise bold tactics; and intensely loyal to the men he leads. The same thematic tension that ran through the previous books remains—is the series anti-authoritarian or is it simply critical of the abuse of authority?

 

Anyway, not everything he does goes as planned. Even after his men are rescued, events leave Offer cut off from the Gang, accompanied only by a man who wants to kill him and pursued across the desert by a relentless German officer who also wants to see him dead. This, in turn, leads to an exciting conclusion to the novel.