RENDEZVOUS IN SINGAPORE

Amid a flurry of anxious farewells, Link Waldens boards the plane from his father's naval base in Manila for Singapore where a father-son reunion and a safari into tiger country await him. A stopover in Saigon fulfills mother's apprehensive predictions when Link is unsuspectingly used to smuggle jewels to Singapore. At a Saigon hotel, another guest, the Malayan sultan, is robbed of precious rubies and these in turn are cleverly hidden away among Link's cherry cough drops. In an attempt to indicate that Link is the smuggler, an overly friendly Chinese chalks the boy's camera and it is only when Link finds the stones in Singapore that he realizes the precariousness of his situation. After a chase in a museum, Link provides the authorities with the missing treasure and some innocent American tourists with a great deal of adventure. Because of its singular credibility and its genuine near-visual atmosphere, the reader like the hero is a captive from the initial bird's-eye-view of Saigon to the tense climax in a Singapore museum. Recommended for the true-to-teenage-life adventurer.