LEAP IN THE DARK

by Anthony McCandless ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 30, 1980

A serio-comic first novel focusing on Yugoslavian guerrillas during World War II. Old Ivo Bilic has gotten together a secret diamond cache by robbing the deposit boxes in the bank he owns; he's saving the stones from falling into enemy hands, either the Communists or the Nazis, both of whom are racing about the hills. And when Ivo dies, his daughter Karla and three sons keep the secret (the hiding-place is under a flagstone in front of the family's Adriatic-island villa). Meanwhile, the British decide to ""set Europe ablaze"" (it's 1940) to distract the Nazis from invasion across the channel--and so a homosexual Soviet agent high up in British intelligence (yes, the ""fourth man"") takes advantage of this policy, mounting a commando operation behind the lines in Yugoslavia, ostensibly to fight the Nazis but really to allow a fortune in British gold sovereigns and materiel to fall into Red hands. And to make sure the commando effort fails, this spy chooses incompetent numbskull officer Yeti as commando leader. Yeti parachutes into the wrong area, blunders about, and eventually falls in love with Karla Bilic, now a Partisan doctor in the hills. But Yeti is so incompetent (and responsible for so much British money) that Intelligence sends agent Henderson to Yugoslavia to take over. Yeti dies, as do two of Karla's brothers, but she fails for Henderson-and though the British sovereigns are safely repossessed, somewhere in the turmoil the Bilic diamond hoard disappears! Then--30 years later, questions from the past haunt the present. Where did the diamonds go? Will Karla (who got pregnant but kept mum) now tell Henderson about his grownup son? And what will happen when the Red hit team and the Irish Provo team crash into each other in the night while trying to waste Henderson in a Dublin cottage? A double-treasure caper, some Waugh-like military satire, lots of real blood and action--a vivid, slightly bizarre mÉlange that zips by with smooth finesse and great panache.

Pub Date: May 30, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1980

Categories: FICTION