Saturday, April 17, 2004

Blood is thicker than Gemstones

Any reader who has taken a brief moment to wonder whatever happend to those great old movie serials will find the answer in Charles Benoit's debut novel, Relative Danger.

With all the ricochet pacing and heart-stopping action of the best outlandish adventure shorts, Relative Danger delivers ordinary heroes, quip-filled dialogue and an absorbing mystery.

Doug Pearce has always been fascinated by tales of the family black sheep, Uncle Russ, who died under mysterious circumstances in a Singapore hotel right after World War II. An old friend of Uncle Russ's contacts Doug and charges him with discovering exactly how Russ died and what happened to a priceless diamond Russ had stolen and smuggled out of Egypt. Suddenly, Doug's humdrum life and bleak future have spices as exotic as the foreign lands he's almost getting killed in. Doug zips around the Middle East and the Orient, jumping rooftops in Cairo, dodging thugs in Singapore and making friends in an Egyptian prison. He's not sure he'll get out of this mission alive, but at least he knows what living feels like.

Appealing and likeable characters populate this compelling comic adventure. Fans of Carl Hiaasen's quirky Florida capers or Clive Cussler's daring operations will enjoy this breezy escapade.
This book was discussed on The Walt Bodine Show 's Book Doctors program March 12, 2007. KCUR 89.3