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Tim Blackburn has a comfortable life. He won a single handed around the world yacht race and inherited some money. He now runs a boatyard, repairing and selling yachts, and he is content, even after an IRA bomb claims the life of his son. His daughter, Nicole, inconsolable after the death of her fraternal twin brother, runs away with Canadian Caspar Von Rellsteb, leader of "Genesis" an ecoterrorism group. Tim's wife is killed when the boat she is sailing blows up, and after a long period of mourning, Blackburn decides to try and find his daughter. He flies to a conference in the US where Von Rellsteb is supposed to give an address, where he meets Jackie Potten, a young, earnest American reporter for a small midwestern newspaper. Tim gives a letter to Von Rellsteb and asks him to deliver it to Nicole. Tim returns to England and realizes that he must search for his daughter himself. His brother, an anglican vicar tries to dissuade him, but Tim is adamant. Jackie appears just as Tim is about to sail in the yacht "Stormchild" and persuades him to take her on as a crew member. Despite Jackie's apparent ditziness, Blackburn finds something appealing about her, takes her on board, and teaches her the rudiments of sailing, on the first leg of their journey to the Pacific, since that is where Tim believes his daughter is living. The book reminded me of something that Hammond Innes and Nevil Shute may have collaborated on. The scenes aboard the yacht, those of the storms at sea, the trip to the Cape of Good Hope, all evoke Innes at his best, and the protagonist, Tim Blackburn, an average man who gives up a life of ease for the unknown, could be one of Shute's heroes. The reader, Steven Pacey, made the book come alive. His accent is just right for the social class of the protagonist. This audio book was well worth listening to.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, June 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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