LANDFALL

The dashing crew of the yacht Glory, who sailed through Gibbs's Dead Run (1988) and Running Fix (1990) steer through the shoals of Middle Eastern politics without ever leaving the Caribbean. Gillian Verdean, Glory's owner, Jeremy Barr, her skipper, and Patrick O'Mara, Glory's cook and bottle-washer, seem to have worked through the romantic tensions that plagued their earlier adventures. Gillian and Barr have paired off, leaving handsome Patrick to take up with any pretty girl who steps aboard Glory. Patrick's pretty girl this time is Isabel, the mysterious expatriate Cuban mistress of Jake Adler, a supercharged American colonel on the outs with his bosses. Colonel Adler, hoping to get his career back on track, has gotten himself mixed up with a right- wing plot to wipe out Communist insurgence on the island of St. Philip, chartering Glory for his flagship. Ex-spook Barr's personal radar warns him to have nothing to do with Adler's little war, but the CIA's grand old man in the Caribbean, with the help of a little blackmail, convinces Barr that it would be better to go along and find out what on earth Adler is up to. Of course, what Adler thinks he's up to is not really what's happening. There is no communist insurgency, but there is an exceptionally complex anti-Israeli plot involving a murderous, fake, cruise ship full of real, retired Jewish travelers; an ancient sugar plantation with an ancient Scottish laird; and a gang of terrorists with no respect for anybody. Far-fetched but fun. The sailing scenes are, as always, outstanding.