In 1993 I read 111 books and was pretty well addicted to crime fiction by then.
My choice today is a stand-alone by Peter Corris, an author dubbed by some as the "godfather of Australian crime fiction". Peter is best known for his Cliff Hardy series which is still adding to. I read this in May 1993.
It was an impulse buy in a Charing Cross bookshop - "Walking Across the World: The Life and Travels of Basil Craft, M.B.E." But from the moment he started reading it, Vic Bright's journalist's instinct told him it would make a great film.
Once Bright and his journalist partner, Marsha Prentiss, start researching the project, it soon becomes apparent that all was not right with the brothers Craft. The expeditions were real enough - the Crafts in fact were travellers out of their time, undertaking, without modern aids, some of the most hazardous journeys known to man, surviving storms, battles with local tribes and renegades, as well as incredible heat and cold. But they were not the amateur explorers they made themselves out to be, and as Vic and Marsha trace the brothers' extraordinary journeys from Marrakech and the Sahara to Death Valley in Arizona and finally the Gibson Desert in Australia, they find little that tallies with the published record.
While Richard remains enigmatic, Basil emerges as a sadistic megalomaniac whose beliefs are as frightening as they are bizarre. What is more, someone is investigating the investigators.
It is not until they are in the harsh desert of Bright's native Australia that he and Marsha uncover the truth and falsehood and the mystery begins to make sense. But by then events are well beyond their control
Kerrie - I always admire an author who can do standalones as well as series. And I really admire an author like Corris (whom I must spotlight one of these times!) who has such an enduring series.
ReplyDelete