A rollicking naval yarn set in the early 1970s. Part a latter-day "Odyssey" and part a latter-day "Billy Budd," "Jacob's Ladder" tells the tragic story of a young English sailor's first week on his first deployment at sea. Not only is Billy Smith tortured by a vindictive petty officer, but he also inadvertently gets enmeshed in a viper's nest of intrigue both on board his ship as well ashore in the den of iniquity that lures him to Singapore's infamous...