DEATH IN A DISTANT LAND

Here, the author's unlikely duo--quiet, retired widower G.D.H. Pringle and his buxom, lively companion Mavis Bignell (Incident at Parga, etc.)--are travelling across Australia on a trip paid for by Mavis big Derby win. Pleasure aside, Mavis is hoping to find her friend Mrs. Hardie's grandson Ben, taken to Australia by his father after a divorce from Hardie's daughter. Then en route, in Bangkok, warmhearted Mavis promises another favor--this time for pilot Evan Jones, who wants a birthday package mailed to his aunt when Mavis arrives in Sydney. Drugs, of course--and part of Jones' plan to extricate himself from the ruthless cartel he's been working for. Turning himself in to a government agency back in London is part of that plan. Meanwhile, wimpy Anthony Pelham-Walker heads the agency and impulsively flies off to Australia, leaving Jones to a dreadful fate. Rugged Aussie policemen Kev MacIllvenny and aide Charlie team reluctantly with the effete Pelham-Walker to follow Mavis and Pringle--the only outsiders on a bus chartered by the British FONES--Friends of Nuclear Energy--and to watch for the gang member they know has been sent to retrieve the drugs. Finally, there'll be a dramatic confrontation of villains and heroes on top of Ayers Rock--with some unexpected results--in a story loaded with action, subplots, human interest, dry wit, and an in-depth tourist view of down under. Not always totally convincing, but always entertaining--the author's best to date.