Ivory

Alex Tremain, the rogue hero of this fun, deftly plotted thriller from Australian author Park (The Delta), turns to piracy in order to finance the renovation and reopening of the crumbling hotel that his parents once operated on an island off Mozambique. While plundering the Peng Cheng, a Chinese freighter, Alex witnesses the Peng Cheng’s captain give a package to the engineer of the Penfold Son, an ocean liner anchored nearby. When Alex learns that the package has contents worth one million pounds and is somewhere on the Penfold Son, he and his crew attack the ocean liner. In the ensuing fray, Jane Elizabeth Humphries, a lawyer employed by and romantically involved with George Robertson Penfold, the ocean liner’s owner, is knocked unconscious and taken captive on Alex’s island. Jane, who suspects George is involved in illegal activities and is attracted to Alex, is drawn into a deadly struggle between the two men to find the package first. Events proceed at a blistering pace to a masterly conclusion. Agent: Isobel Dixon, Blake Friedmann Literary Agency (U.K.). (Nov.)