SABOTAGE

From the author of Crossing in Berlin, 1981; Poker Game, 1983, etc.: Japanese Cosa Nostra types and a crazed, Cong-killing ex-sergeant are the heavies who terrorize a take-charge ship-broker, a lusty lady tanker-captain, and the oil shipping industry in this tepid adventure-travelogue. Mitch Donahey is a robustly honest ship-broker pulling down a good living matching cargos to carriers in Honolulu, but he's lonely. When the beautiful, equally intelligent, equally competent, and sexually skilled Mona Harkinson picks him up in the bar of the Royal Hawaiian, Donahey's life seems perfect, but then, wham-bam-thank-you-sir, Mona whirls out of his life without having ever told him what she does. (For a living. They do everything else.) It turns out that our gal Mona is a supertanker jockey whose rudderless supertanker loaded with Nigerian crude runs aground and fouls the beaches of Delaware. It's Sabotage! In one of the very many incredible coincidences that plague this book, it seems that Mona's supertanker was matched to her cargo by an unscrupulous broker in Mitch's firm. Mitch quits his job and flies to be with Mona to steer her through the shoals of press conferences and inquiries that make running aground such a pain; he winds up, working with the FBI, the CIA, and a dashing new Jordanian boss as he tries to find out who's picking on Mona. They see the world. Hawaii is warm and beautiful. Denmark is cool and charming. The Orient is mysterious and full of Orientals. Sabotage is not very exciting.