Dodge, David "Bullets for the Bridegroom"

Though set entirely in landlocked Reno, Nev., this wise-cracking detective novel really does have a nautical theme. Seems Dodge’s hero, San Francisco accountant James “Whit” Whitney, has stumbled onto a German spy ring which is sending top-secret information about Pacific merchant marine convoys to the Japanese via a secret radio transmitter located in a Nevada ghost town! O.K., so the plot is a bit far-fetched. Read this one for fun, since Dodge’s prose remains as witty and fresh today as when it first appeared. Dodge, by the way, remains best known for another caper novel, To Catch A Thief, turned into the classic 1955 Cary Grant/Grace Kelly film. Note that “Bullets for the Bridegroom” was later published (see next entry) as a novel.