Trouble Follows Me

Overview

Trouble Follows Me opens in Honolulu in 1945, towards the end of the war in the Pacific theater. Ensign Sam Drake is in Honolulu, preparing for leave to visit his home of Detroit, Michigan. He and his buddy Eric go out on the town with Eric’s girlfriend Sue and her friend Mary. Before the night has ended, Sue is dead, seemingly a suicide, though Sam is not so sure. Eric suspects the African-American steward, Hector Land. Sam investigates as much as he can before his trip home to Detroit, also the hometown of Land. The more Sam looks into this crime, the more trouble he finds, trouble that follows him everywhere he goes.

Observations

In the opening chapter of Millar’s first book, The Dark Tunnel, the reader learns that Dr. Robert Branch, the hero of the book, wants very much to join the U.S. Navy, but had been turned down. Kenneth Millar, studying at the University of Michigan at the time, had also been initially turned down when he tried to enlist in the U.S. Navy. However, as the war progressed, he did enlist and was trained as a communications officer. Lt. Kenneth Millar served in the Pacific fleet at the end of the war. In his spare time, Lt. Millar wrote his second book, Trouble Follows Me, featuring a version of himself, Ensign Sam Drake.

Additional Publication Information

The information is here is accurate to the best knowledge of the site’s author, but should not be presumed to be definitive.

Book Covers

	Original 1st edition, hardcopy
	Lion Books, 1950; 2nd edition, paper
	Lion Books, 1950, as Night Train; 3rd edition, paper
	Bantam, 1972; paper
	Mysterious Press/Open Road, 2013; trade paperback