THE BEACHCOMBER

This has, perhaps, the best chance for wide popularity of anything McFee has done since Casuals of the Sea. In form, it recalls the Conrad pattern of a story within a story, for the greater part of the plot is unfolded in the retelling on the part of the Chief Engineer of a cruise ship, the story of an ex-captain, traveling as a passenger to Jamaica, to another passenger, an Irish woman novelist, eager for ""copy"". There is good adventure and romance and an aura of mystery -- characterization that is unaccountably indirect -- and the feel of the sea and many ports throughout. Unlike many of his books, this has equal appeal for women. The last McFee novel, No Castle in Spain, was sheer romantic adventure, with virtually nothing of the sea he knows so well. This reverts to his old love, and has a surer touch, a finer sensitivity.