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BRASS EAGLE by Margaret Duffy

BRASS EAGLE

By

Pub Date: Aug. 24th, 1989
Publisher: St. Martin's

The third case for Ingrid and Patrick Gillard (A Murder of Crows, Death of a Raven), one that again entangles the novelist and her Falklands-hero husband with spies, terrorists, and anti-British elements hunted by their superior Colonel Richard Daws. Soon after the birth of their son, Ingrid and Patrick are puzzling over four very suspicious suicides in southwestern England: only three of them were definitely helped along, and Alex Haywood's may not have been his at all--only a very waterlogged, severed arm showed up. Snooping round a bungaloo, the one-legged Patrick is badly thrashed by a gang; but Ingrid escapes harm, thanks to a seemingly terrified young woman involved with a bunch of motorcycle goons. The woman turns out to be wealthy Alyssa Goldberg--on holiday abroad, say her parents--and it falls to Patrick to rescue her. Soon, super-macho Patrick is a member of the evil motorcyle gang, taking more beatings, falling in love (perhaps) with Alyssa, while Ingrid and the Gillards' omnipresent back-up man, Terry, consider an affair and try to keep track of Patrick. Meanwhile, undercover agent Adam West has infiltrated the leather-and-studs bikers and may be forced into revealing Patrick's identity before the terrorists are exposed and Britain triumphs again. Duffy--of the hogwash plotting school--redeems herself (somewhat) with the testy strains on the Gillard marriage; but, still, this is creaky and miss-able.