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RAVEN S LONGEST NIGHT by Donald MacKenzie

RAVEN S LONGEST NIGHT

By

Pub Date: Dec. 2nd, 1983
Publisher: Doubleday

Raven's recent marriage to longtime love Kirstie (Raven and the Paperhangers) hasn't improved his mental processes or added sparkle to his conversation--facts soon made plain in this latest creaker of au outing. In Portugal with photographer Kirstie, visiting her old school chum Ilona Szechenyi (beautiful, neurotic), Raven learns all about the Szechenyi family problems: Ilona's brother is ne'er-do-well Karolyi; her father is a hard-drinking expatriate Hungarian count. And all three of them are being threatened by Hungarian secret agent Nicholas Gotsek--who's after the millions of government money which the count escaped with years ago! (He put it all in a Swiss bank account, in trust for the day of the Communist regime's downfall.) Raven's clumsy efforts to help include a one-night stand with Ilona; he is almost jailed for murder after Karolyi and the count are killed. But finally a clichÉ of a gambit pins down the culprit--and gets him off the hook. With dialogue that's strictly from hunger, not Hungary (""You're evil, Ilona, poisonous. Not fit to live""): a distinctly off-day for the once-solid MacKenzie.