Just Finished Reading: Imperial 109 by Richard Doyle (FP: 1977)

 

It should have been a normal flight from Durban to New York via London. It would have been if the co-pilot had been doing his job properly or if Captain O’Neill had been supervising the repairs to the wings fuel tank. As they began to lose fuel over the desert one thing was certain, they’d never make Cairo without extra fuel and more repairs en-route. Setting down on the Nile at a reserve fuelling stop the passengers were less than happy with an additional overnight stay. But when a young naval officer, showing off to the mine owner’s secretary, was taken by a local crocodile they were even more anxious to leave and head towards Cairo’s bright lights. The passengers were the usual bunch of the rich and shameless – a South African mine owner anxious to meet his financiers in New York, his spoilt and bored wife, the young secretary at the end of her tether, the Italian count and his tempestuous young wife on their way to the Italian embassy in Washington, the mysterious mining engineer with an apparent independent income and greedy eyes, the old man and his daughter picked up in Italy and on the run from the Nazi’s, the Swiss businessman who was both more and less than he appeared, the Turkish noble who was anything but Turkish…. Then there was the unusual cargo of gold bullion on its way to American and the unofficial reception committee waiting for its arrival. It was shaping up to be one hell of a trip – if they could make it there alive!

I know that you’re never supposed to judge a book by its cover but those who have been around this Blog long enough know of my love for flying boats. The fact that the book had a flying boat – and one from Imperial Airways no less – on the cover was enough for me to snap up this 1970’s thriller. The actual fun started when I read the blub on the back comparing the book to a splicing of Airport, The 39 Steps, Jaws (presumably for the crocodile incident!) and Murder on the Orient Express. Having read the book I can probably agree on those points. Despite its 480 page length this novel actually contained at least 5-6 novels intertwined. It wasn’t exactly a car crash novel though. It was just that SO much was going on and so many people were involved – the cast in any movie would be like Towering Inferno or any of the other 70’s disaster movies – that there was no time for catching any breaths. The book was PACKED with story and a fair bit of action too. Despite the fact that most of the characters were seemingly straight out of central casting the author gave each of them enough room to become reasonably real people. Or at least real enough to relate to. True, this is hardly high literature as there’s just far too much going on in every scene. But still it’s so bloody entertaining to watch the author pull ridiculous stunts with the story without stepping over the line into actual farce. Sure, there were laugh out loud moments when things got particularly silly but that too was entertainment of a sort. Overall though the constant feeling was one of a simple (if complex) fun adventure in the old style. I actually surprised myself at just how much I enjoyed myself reading what was, in effect, a trashy airport novel. It had no pretentions to being anything else but good clean silly fun and delivered that in spades. If you just want something to relax to next to the pool or over a few rainy days this is definitely the book for you. You’ll laugh at the convoluted plot but that’s all part of its charm. Highly recommended if you can find a copy.