Another example of Higgins early work where he has written a new framework around an old story.

Paul Chavasse in his 3rd outing under Higgins’s pen takes on a mission to help a woman he meets at an embassy dinner. She reports that she is trying to get ‘The Black Madonna’ (A religious statue) out of Albania but her brother has been killed in the process and the boat sunk deep in the Albanian Marshes.

Enlisting the help of a colleague he goes in search of the lost idol. However, things and people are not what they seem and what follows is a tale of deception, deceit and death. A few nice twists but the story is one that I have read several times before from Higgins (Sad wind from the Sea & The Khufra Run).

A nice try but doesn’t do it for me. ( )