The story of Ernest Gann's fourth novel, "Fiddler's Green," tells of Bruno Felkin's jarring impact upon the lives of Hamil and his son Carl, upon his own girl, Connie, and on the men whose boats and lives centered about a commercial fishing wharf in San Francisco Bay….

The author of this tale is himself an adventurous man, whose previous novels have been about planes and flying men. He writes good adventure stories and his people are not stock characters. There is true suspense throughout the book. Mr. Gann also knows his San Francisco waterfront and makes the reader feel as if he, too, knew it.

The only letdown comes at the conclusion when, after exciting action and apt characterization have kept the reader deeply interested, the author sees fit to tie up the loose ends neatly and to dispose of his characters carefully and obviously. The actors do...