Three men from very different backgrounds – a young tennis player searching for a mysterious young woman he’s in love with , an atomic scientist looking for a missing colleague and an old adventurer trying to discover who murdered his journalist brother, find themselves by complete chance meeting in a Nevada desert town all at the same time looking for answers. What happens next , who they meet and what they discover of a nearby semi-religious cult will lead not only themselves into mortal danger, but reveal the very future of the world could be at stake.
Published first in 1938 ‘The Doomsday Men ‘ draws on heavily on JBP’s experience of spending some winters in Arizona and the impact of the stunning landscapes and the many characterful people he met there . Described as “A fairy tale in Western rig'” it has rich descriptions of characters and places, but with a plot that brings to mind a classic action movie, not unlike the much the later Hollywood film ‘North by NorthWest’ . However seen in hindsight , at a time when atomic fusion was in its infancy and the bomb was just a theoretical concept for a tiny few physicists , remarkably it predicts the fear of a weapon of mass destruction coming into the hands of nihilistic fanatics and their duped followers.
In the introduction he writes, ‘The idle tale is not quite all. As children playing games may throw strange threatening shadows on the wall; In such a world could I do less?’
J.B PRIESTLEY 