Bear Trap

A dead peacemaker, a sealed letter, and a public information officer caught inside a machinery of official deception drive Alan E. Nourse's tense science fiction thriller. In Bear Trap, Tom Shandor is summoned after the death of Secretary of State David Ingersoll, a figure remembered as the nation's great voice for peace. Ingersoll's last request sends Shandor into the hidden record behind the public story, forcing him to confront propaganda, political manipulation, and the possibility that the death of a statesman may conceal something far more dangerous. Project Gutenberg's listing identifies the central situation as Shandor's struggle with government deception during a time of impending war.

First published in 1957, Bear Trap belongs to the Cold War edge of classic science fiction: compact, suspicious, political, and built around the fear that truth itself can be managed by institutions. Nourse, a physician as well as a science fiction writer, often brought professional discipline and social concern to his speculative fiction, and this story shows his ability to turn public crisis into private moral pressure. For readers of Golden Age science fiction, Cold War suspense, political SF, conspiracy fiction, and compact magazine-era thrillers, Bear Trap is a sharp Positronic Book entry from a writer whose work often joined science, medicine, and social unease. Explore other exciting Positronic Books devoted to classic science fiction, fantasy, and mystery.