Dutch Treat

British author Jones, who died in 1995, is perhaps best remembered for 14 autobiographical books recounting the seafaring adventures of a one-legged blue-water sailor (Seagulls in My Soup: Further Adventures of a Wayward Sailor). His third work of fiction, originally published in England in 1979, is a wartime thriller telling of a bizarre special mission by British operatives during the early days of WWII. In 1940, the French and British are evacuating the chaotic beaches at Dunkirk, hammered by German panzers and the Luftwaffe. As the Nazis sweep across Western Europe, the British government launches a top-secret commando operation to steal the Dutch crown jewels from the queen's royal palace in Amsterdam before the Nazis can occupy the Netherlands. A motley group is selected to pull the heist: Colonel Canning and Lieutenant Dennis, two stuffy British Army officers; able seaman Goffin, a wisecracking sailor; and two scheming convicts chosen for their skills in safecracking and explosives. ""Feather Fingers"" Mitchell and ""Banger"" Lynch have different ideas about what to do with the loot, but they won't be the mission's only problems. Double agents, traitors, doublecrossings and bad luck plague the operation as the Nazis discover the plan and move quickly to intercept the commandos. Readers will be breathless by the time Jones wraps up this gripping tale, its chronicling of the disaster at Dunkirk, the razor-edged pursuit and the cold-blooded manipulations of the spymasters in London reminiscent of Alistair McLean's stories of WWII. (Dec.)