How close did we come to nuclear war? Within a word, but most people don't know the story. The new breed of submarine thriller - based on the true story. The reenactment of the most dangerous moment in human history about a hero’s sacrifice, courage, and actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In Russia, 1962, Captain Vasili Arkhipov is assigned to the B-59, a Soviet diesel submarine above the Arctic Circle. With the Americans threatening to invade Cuba, he is called on to transport a nuclear torpedo and special forces on a Top-Secret mission to an unknown location during the most dangerous days of human history. How did we survive? If you read no other modern history this year, read this book. Who are your heroes? Churchill? Gandhi? Luther-King? However long your list is, it is very likely, like mine, not to include Vasili Arkhipov, a Russian submariner who, if you were born before October 1962 almost certainly saved your life, and if you were born after October 1962, almost certainly made your life possible. The Last Saturday of October is the fact based story of probably the most important, unsung superhero and saver of humanity there has ever been. It is narrated in beautifully intricate detail, from the point of view of one inside the B-59 submarine through its terrible voyage during the Cuban Missile Crisis - and Douglas Gilbert knows from personal experience, what life inside a submarine is like, which comes across with a chilling reality that no writer, however talented could conjure up simply from imagination. Researched to the standards of a university text book, but told to the standards of a great novel, I am simply in awe. - Review by Andrew Levy, author of The Dweller's Guide to the Planet If you read one naval thriller this year, let it be The Last Saturday of October : The Declassified Saga of Black Saturday. This well-researched, beautifully written thriller is grounded in historical evidence, a story that is as enjoyable as it is disturbing. The Last Saturday of October: The Declassified Saga of Black Saturday by Douglas Gilbert is a breathtaking novel that will take readers into surprising places, filled with historical references and declassified information about one of the most decisive moments in modern history. Could anyone have believed that it was a Russian sailor who saved the United States from a nuclear firestorm? What actually happened in that military standoff on Black Saturday in 1962? This book provides stunning answers to these questions and leads readers into a detailed account of the courageous journey of a Russian sailor, Vasily Arkhipov, who forestalled the nuclear raid on the US. The author leads readers into the depths of the Soviet submarine B-59 to explore events that took place inside the hull. This story is so disturbing, so gripping, and so wild that it's hard to believe it's based on declassified facts. The author does a wonderful job keeping the reader engrossed from the very first page, through each well-written scene to the next gripping one. Douglas Gilbert seems to have done great research on the subject, and his writing, coupled with the unique phraseology, comes across with unusual confidence and grace. I couldn't stop reading from the very first page. It is a satisfying story. - Review by Divine Zape for Readers' Favorite The Last Saturday of October is a powerful, thrilling, and wild ride. "The anxious chill of an unknown sea gripped the air and the heart of Captain Savitsky. The nuke lay in its cradle, sealed orders rested in the safe, and the clock ticked." It could be a quote from Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October, but it is nothing to do with the famous book and film. It comes from The Last Saturday of October: The Declassified Saga of Black Saturday, a brilliant thriller based on the truth about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Douglas Gilbert has taken facts and turned them into fiction in a way that makes them readable, exciting, and frankly bloodcurdling. How close did we come to the end of civilization as we know it? Why did Soviet naval officer Vasili Arkhipov preempt a nuclear strike on America? Would any of us be alive if he hadn't? I found myself actually sweating while I was reading The Last Saturday of October. Douglas Gilbert has himself served as a US submarine officer and understands the pressure on submarine crews where decisions made in seconds can mean the difference between life and death. He has used that knowledge to take his readers aboard a submarine, B-59, submerged beneath the Sargasso Sea. He invites you to experience claustrophobic cramped quarters for working, sleeping and eating, and all the while reminds you that the world is watching, terrified, not knowing what is happening between JFK, Nikita Khrushchev, and so many others. - Review by Sarah Stuart for Readers' Favorite The Last Saturday of October: The Declassified Saga of Black Saturday is one of the best thrillers I have read in military fiction, a p