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The Book
This is the second of the four Rex Carver books. It starts with
Carver taking on the search for a man who has failed to claim a
£6,000 legacy. It turns out that this man is involved with a
diamond robbery, and that the diamonds will be traded for opium
through the agency of two Chinese twins, Suma and Lian, who are
agents of the Chinese government, out to corrupt British youth with
drugs and earn hard currency for their regime.
The travel schedule is limited to Ireland and eastern France,
including a lengthy voyage from the Belgian border to Lyon aboard a
canal barge. The Secret Service mandarins Manston and Sutcliffe have
walk-on roles, and Carver manages to bed one of the Chinese girls as
well as the heroine, Bertina Brown. Given that this was the era of
the devaluation of the pound and the £50 foreign-currency
allowance, the descriptions of luxury hotels, luxury cars, and fine
dining would have created a pleasant fantasy world for British
readers of the day.
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Publishing History
Published by Heinemann in 1966 at 18/-. The American edition by
Morrow appeared in the same year at $3.95. Also appeared in two
parts as a supplement to the Toronto Star Weekly, 28
January and 5 February 1967. There were several paperback editions.
A good review appeared on
the Bill Crider blog in 2010.
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