PORT AFRIQUE

Some pretty perpetual tension here for the story of Rip Reardon, battered and bitter after the war, who returns to Port Afrique to find that the wife he'd loved- Georgette- is dead. Knowing that Georgette had been killed, Rip refuses to let the case rest, faces those around him with belligerent mistrust; Ynez, the Spanish dancer, who loves him and whom he loves but cannot believe; Emile Delaigre, his partner, who had been involved in Axis dealings during the war; Moussao, police detective, whose quiet vigilance is personally as well as professionally motivated. Only with the theft of Georgette's diamond necklace do the facts become known and the dirty evidence of her infidelity, blackmail and murder clear the way for his love for the once suspect Ynez... A sultry, often stormy excitement here gives this its high score on readability.