Two Novel
p. 101 · Read in the full issue
Novels
For a little escape reading, o new novels can be recom "nded. The first is the Fall of Eagle by Jon Cleary; the
:ond High Citadel by Desmond
tgley.
LEARY is an Australian. Last year on a Sydney television •gramme he made the point that order to succeed today in winning vorld audience, it is necessary for lovelist to always be seeking new :kgrounds. fhis piece of advice he carries out iself to some purpose. The last ary we read had a background Burma. The Fall of an Eagle is •ut modern Turkey. young Australian woman tiaeologist, who has had a husband ed in an accident, followed by an
unsatisfactory love affair, has developed a psychological trauma as a consequence. As part of this she goes to Turkey to look for Roman antiquities but instead has an earthy affair with an unshaven and myster ious Turk.
The climax of the story arrives with a severe earthquake that wipes out the small Anatolian town where all the dramatic personae have their
headquarters. A fast-moving story, well told.
The action of High Citadel takes place in an equally unusual place— on one of the towering peaks of the Andes.
The hero is a war-shattered air pilot who has sunk through the recognised strata of commercial aviation until he is left with chauffer ing a decrepit DC3 for a shady airline in an uncertain South American state.
Pulls Gun On this particular flight, his re volutionary-minded co-pilot pulls a gun on him when they are over a snow-filled Andean valley and he is forced to bring the aircraft down on a rough, too-short airstrip.
In the ensuing moments, the revolutionary co-pilot is killed, so are some of the passengers, and the plane is wrecked. The survivors, who include a Latin VIP returning home to stage a coup d'etat against the Communists, and his beautiful niece, then have the task of getting down from the 20,000 ft valley to a level where breathing is somewhat easier.
They are thwarted in this by the late co-pilot’s Communist friends (up to the last few pages), but it all makes an exciting if somewhat improbable story in which the DC3 pilot redeems himself,—JT. (THE FALL OP THE EAGLE and HIGH CITADEL. Collins. 25/- each).