Kirkus Reviews QR Code
THE DARLINGTON JAUNT by Angus Ross

THE DARLINGTON JAUNT

By

Pub Date: April 30th, 1984
Publisher: Walker

Livelier than the other Mark Farrow cases to appear here (The Burgos Contract, The Hamburg Switch), this one takes the British secret-agent to unromantic Darlington--an industrial town where a West German business-visitor has been fatally mugged. Why the IntelLigence interest? Because the German had a mysteriously large amount of cash on his person. . . and because there's important military-weapon production going on at a Darlington factory. Farrow and his workaholic, hyper colleague Charlie retrace the German's pre-murder movements--which lead to young Jewish factory-designer Anthony Green and wife Ruth. Are they Israeli agents, like the German, out to steal tank designs? So it seems. But then Green dies suddenly, his wife (?) seems innocent, and an IRA connection surfaces. And there'll be Palestinian forces at work, too, before Farrow and Charlie nab--or kill off--all the spy-types. Very undistinguished but very fast and painless, buoyed up with lots of sardonic Farrow/Charlie dialogue: a light, bright little espionage outing.