Atoll

After the 74th underground nuclear test by the French, the beautiful Tahitian atoll of Mururoa develops a major crack that soon will allow hot radioactive brine to flow from subterranean caverns into the Pacific. Alarmed by this turn of events, Tahitian patriot Tumahai arrives in Honolulu to seek the help of volcano expert John Carlisle, who rebuffs the former's offer of a $150,000 fee but recommends his friend, mining engineer Zac Brennan, for the job. Brennan arrives on Mururoa to find the situation much worse than he suspected. The villain in the piece is the DGSE, the insidious, omnipresent French equivalent of the CIA, which will stop at nothing in its ruthless, duplicitous campaign to block the foes of nuclear testing. In this tightly written, exciting adventure, New Zealander Peel ( Hell Seed ) offers plenty of no-holds-barred violence as Carlisle is goaded out of his indifference and joins with Brennan to outwit the French. For dessert, the author provides a delightful romance between Carlisle and a beautiful, heroic native woman. ( July )