Helmet and Wasps is the second novel of Michael Mott, a young English writer of considerable talent. He has written an old-fashioned novel that is deceptively quiet of tone. We are allowed to read the notebooks of a Wehrmacht officer who … has been given an insignificant post in Italy…. Slowly small problems creep in from the outside, mere distractions in the routine, until, with great skill, Mr. Mott gathers up these carefully dropped clues, develops them at breath-taking acceleration, and creates a climax of extraordinary violence. To have guessed in such detail the problems of a German officer at the edge of the war is no small feat, and to have made believable the psychology of his brusque, Teutonic notes required mature skill. (p. 279)