cover image The Rape of Aphrodite

The Rape of Aphrodite

Arden Winch. Trafalgar Square Publishing, $21.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-7472-0063-5

On the beleaguered island of Cyprus, a clutch of English schoolgirls has been taken hostage by a Turkish terrorist group called the Grey Panthers. Enter Joshua Doyle, senior operative of a top-secret, counterterrorist organization, whose daughter Joanna is one of the captives. In two days on Cyprus, Doyle infiltrates the northern, Turkish-held end of the island where the gang is holed up, finds the body of the girls' chaperone, lands briefly in jail and beds a sloe-eyed temptress on her own mission. By the third day he learns that the Turkish authorities are as eager as the British to free the hostages and wipe out their captors. When the Panthers threaten to kill a hostage every hour unless the British government recognizes the Republic of North Cyprus, Joshua must act alone. In a bloody battle that would pin moviegoers to their seats, he jumps the Turkish guns and kills each terrorist individually. Winch, a British screenwriter, sacrifices character to incident in his first novel. ``You're a cold fish,'' one of the minor players tells Joshua, and that, unfortunately, is what spoils Joshua's adventure. (Aug.)