Sixteen-year old Victor--stuck in Alabama and dreaming of glory--experiences a dramatic coming-of-age as he is hurled into battle against the Nazis in his defense of the Southern coast against enemy invasion YA-- In the summer of 1942, 16-year-old Victor feels he has outgrown his grandmother's island in Mobile Bay, Alabama, where he has been sent by his father to be a companion for his dying grandmother. He wishes he were old enough to join the Army, and avidly follows the World War II radio news. When his small motor boat crashes into a surfacing German U-boat in the bay, the pace of Victor's summer changes. Before long, he and a daredevil friend are embroiled in a series of adventures involving corpses, spies and counter-spies, Nazis, police, and an assortment of rich, eccentric tourists. Imprisoned, kidnapped, and on the run, Victor wrestles with guilt and grief when his grandmother dies. There is an artful balance here between the coming-of-age theme and the action-filled plot. Filling a gap between the "Hardy Boys" series and the more sophisticated novels by Tom Clancy or Ken Follet, V for Victor delivers plenty of memorable suspense. - Keddy Outlaw, Harris County Public Library, Houston Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. Despite submarine activity in the Gulf of Mexico, most residents of Alabama's coastal region went on as usual with their daily lives during the summer of 1942. But not Victor Sylvester, a 16-year-old with a vivid imagination, avid curiosity, and rather brutal father. One night he hears a strange sound out in the bay and sets out to investigate, thereby discovering a submarine in the middle of Mobile Bay and himself in the middle of a Nazi plot. While the premise is intriguing and the writing stylistically adept, this coming-of-age story doesn't quite come off. At times the plot seems contrived and the Nazi agents awfully generous, if not downright stupid. Not bad reading, but one that falls short of its potential. For public libraries. David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.