Book description
Picture a hotel room in 1948 Singapore. Picture a dispute between black
marketer and thief Russell Pearce and an associate-one who opens fire
and murders Russell Pearce. Fast forward to present-day Potts-ville,
Pennsylvania. Young Doug Pearce, just fired from his steady job in the
brewery, has never strayed far from home. But he's always found stories
of his Uncle Russ, the family black sheep, fascinating. In comes a
letter from an old friend of his dead uncle inviting him up to Toronto.
Doug, at loose ends and bored with killing time, accepts. On arri-val,
he learns that wealthy and glamorous Edna wants Doug to solve the murder
of Russell Pearce and exonerate the chief suspect. And what about the
legendary red diamond he was thought to be smuggling? Doug, nervous but
game, agrees to play detective. How bad can it be to jet off to a
glamour spot or two and have an adventure? Whoa! By the end of his first
day in Casablanca, Doug knows he's made a mistake. And while he meets
people eager to help-a retired museum curator, a beautiful and
self-absorbed heiress, and her elderly grand-father, a colleague of
Russell Pearce-it becomes clear that someone else is interested in Doug
and his quest. From Morocco to Egypt to Bahrain to Singapore, Doug
stumbles on. And whether he's escaping across Cairo rooftops, ducking
bullets in a high-speed desert chase, or killing time in a crowded
Egyptian jail cell, Doug is sure of one thing: He has no clue what he's
doing. But surely he'll think of something as he's propelled full circle
back to Singapore and the famed Raffles Hotel. He's definitely not
007...but will he prove to be a zero? Benoit's smashingly good,
action-packed first novel leads Douglas Pearce, a young brewery worker
from Pottstown, Pa., on a quest for information about his long-dead
uncle that takes him from Toronto to Casablanca, Cairo, Bahrain and
Singapore, before returning him to Toronto. He gets on the trail of a
huge stolen gem, and along the way finds rascals, thugs, thieves and
vamps among the archeology scholars, ex-museum directors and
encyclopedia publishers who appear to be his guides. With much wit and
invention, Benoit convincingly portrays the Middle East. A hilarious
account of chaos in the Cairo airport reads like an updated scene from
Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad. Benoit adroitly contrasts the modern
features of North Africa and Asia with the remnants of their ancient
pasts. Two murderous chases through urban and rural Egypt build to a
resolution that remains well concealed until the final pages. Some
readers may find the sex scenes too brief and a bit strange, but this is
a quibble. Benoit is a rare discovery, and one hopes that he plans to
produce more adventure-oriented mysteries with the same skill and energy
that propel this excellent debut. A compulsive traveler, occasional
scuba diver, and incurable beginner saxophonist, Charles Benoit has
worked in education and advertising. He and his wife, Rose, currently
live in exotic Rochester, New York. Relative Danger is his first novel.
Visit his website at www. CharlesBenoit. com.
