Before Richard Brooks became one of Hollywood's grittiest directors and screenwriters, he wrote a handful of novels, one of which (this one) became the great motion picture CROSSFIRE, a fine film noir which also was a landmark in the movies' treatment of anti-semitism. Brooks's novel differs considerably from the film in a number of ways, most prominently in that the victim of the central murder around which the story revolves is a homosexual in the book rather than the Jew of the movie. Brooks's novel is darker even than the movie, which is pretty dark on its own. In the book, there is a greater opportunity to explore the psyche of each character, and Brooks does so brilliantly through a technique I've not encountered before in quite this approach. Much of the story is told through the thoughts of the characters, often switching from one character's thoughts to another's and back on a single page. While murder is at the heart of the story, Brooks's interest expands beyond the melodramatics of the crime to the hearts of the people caught up in the events, with special attention paid to the crushing loneliness, ennui, and seeming meaninglessness of the lives of wartime soldiers in safe but dull stateside billets. The brick foxhole of the title describes the difficulty of serving in safety and civilized surroundings, but without the comforts of either family or the sensation that one participates in the great crusade underway in combat zones around the world. Drudgery, empty tasks, and a yearning to be where "real" soldiers are fighting a "real" war deplete the emotional reserves of several of the characters in this truly fine novel, and loneliness, rumor, and suspicion eat at the souls of the principals. Brooks is also deeply attentive to the prejudices and hate that fester among men, especially men whom the war has forced into more socially diverse situations and surroundings than they are familiar or comfortable with. Brooks writes with splendid poetry, even when the thoughts he explores are base or crude or cruel. Yet, ultimately, his story reveals a great faith in man's better angels and resolves with a thrilling suggestion that goodness, honor, loyalty, and faith in one's fellows will conquer the darkness. This is a splendid, all-too-short novel. ( )