Death In the Mind

Evans’ “adventures while trying to discover how and by whom this plot has been carried out make a thrilling, if incredible, tale. However, Mr. Lockridge’s collaborator, Professor Estabrooks of Colgate University, offers documentary evidence that hypnotism could be used in this way; and who are we to argue this point with a Professor of Psychology?”—The New York Times


World War II: The Allied victory over the Axis powers is jeopardized after a series of inexplicable acts committed by American forces. Each had been explained as caused by faulty intelligence or simple carelessness until the U.S.S State is torpedoed by an American Gato-class submarine. There is no easy explanation for the act; it occurs in a mined British port, an environment that precludes any rationalization of human error.

  Defensive measures lead to the complete destruction of the submarine and its crew, but the event yields an important clue. John Evans, an American agent working with the British, is reassigned to the investigation of a new Nazi technique rumored to effectively program individuals to follow without question any order given to them, even if it constitutes treason.