One of Our H-Bombs Is Missing by Flora Lewis (Bantam: $3.50; 255 pp.)

Is the premise of “State Scarlet” plausible? The question brings to mind the loss of a U.S. nuclear weapon in 1966. In that year, a B-52 and the tanker refueling it collided over Spain, and four “unarmed” thermonuclear devices dropped to Earth.

While there were no casualties, and radiation levels were low, at first only three of the four bombs were recovered. Where was the fourth? Foreign correspondent Flora Lewis’ book on the incident, including the recovery of the lost bomb, makes an unusually timely paperback reprint.