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Richard Mariner #27
Black Pearl
An incalculable fortune in conflict minerals lies on the bed of a lost lake. The lake lies in the middle of a jungle hardly changed since the age of the dinosaurs, while the jungle stands on the slope of an active volcano which has destroyed the only civilisation nearby. The volcano serves as a border between two warring central African nations. And an uncontrolled, murderous guerrilla army claims the territory for its own, using a combination of modern terrorist techniques and timeless black magic to keep strangers out.
Richard Mariner is leading a team into the heart of it all, seeking the lake and the fortune it contains – his only clues a half-forgotten legend and a huge black pearl that is so much more than it seems . . .
Richard Mariner is leading a team into the heart of it all, seeking the lake and the fortune it contains – his only clues a half-forgotten legend and a huge black pearl that is so much more than it seems . . .
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Peter Tonkin
92 books62 followersPeter Tonkin's first novel, KILLER, was published in 1978. His work has included the acclaimed "Mariner" series that have been critically compared with the best of Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley and Hammond Innes.
More recently he has been working on a series of detective thrillers with an Elizabethan background. This series, "The Master of Defense", has been characterised as 'James Bond meets Sherlock Holmes meets William Shakespeare'. Each story is a classic 'whodunit' with all the clues presented to the reader exactly as they are presented to the hero, Tom Musgrave. The Kirkus Review described them as having 'Elizabethan detail, rousing action sequences, sound detection...everything a fan of historical mysteries could hope for."
More recently he has been working on a series of detective thrillers with an Elizabethan background. This series, "The Master of Defense", has been characterised as 'James Bond meets Sherlock Holmes meets William Shakespeare'. Each story is a classic 'whodunit' with all the clues presented to the reader exactly as they are presented to the hero, Tom Musgrave. The Kirkus Review described them as having 'Elizabethan detail, rousing action sequences, sound detection...everything a fan of historical mysteries could hope for."
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 4, 2023
On their left the jungle gathered itself into a thickening, almost triangular heave of blackness. But at the edge of the bank itself there was a low cliff, for they were at the back of a meander. And, as though extending the tall jungle on the crest of the bank, a jumble of freshwater mangroves reached out for twelve metres or more…
Black Pearl opens in 1973 in the Central African country of Benin Le Bas. A Japanese researcher and his team are seeding oysters in the black waters of Lake Dudo, the mineral-rich waters giving the pearls their unique colour - beneath the smouldering volcano Mt Karisoke, marking the border with Congo Libre. The Japanese are butchered by a guerilla movement, cue volcanic eruption and poisonous gas cloud that takes out the town below and all lifeforms in its path.
Fast forward to 2013. Our loved-up sea captains, Richard and Robin Mariner, are flying up valley to reconnoiter the ruined city and lake, largely swallowed up by jungle, in the company of Russian entrepreneurs Max Asov and Felix Makarov of the Bashnev/Sevmash consortium. The government is to sanction an expeditionary force to set up a site to exploit the mineral rich coltan sediment for the telecommunications industry – in a race to prevent it falling into the hands of Chinese competitor Han Wuhan, operating illegally from across the border, and protected by the guerilla Army of Christ the Infant, armed with modern terrorist weaponry, led by a charismatic leader who uses “witchcraft” to enforce his will.
Against a backdrop of civil unrest in the eve of the upcoming election, with daughter Celine Chaka challenging her father; distrust between the forces sent to take on the guerillas and establish a forward camp – the local militia and Spetnaz (the Russian Federation not known for its steamy jungles), and family tensions between Max Asov, his estranged daughter Anastasia, running an orphanage and her one-time beau, Ivan Yagula.
The first half is a bit slow, but once the two mega hovercraft head upstream and into direct resistance with the guerillas things hot up (cue gory killings and human booby traps). There are a few references to an earlier book set in the same country, with some of the same characters which I have not read, but this does not detract in any way. This is another action-filled adventure in the Mariner series, with Richard taking command when things inevitably go pear-shaped, and in this one, sensibly, Robin keeps well out of way.
Black Pearl opens in 1973 in the Central African country of Benin Le Bas. A Japanese researcher and his team are seeding oysters in the black waters of Lake Dudo, the mineral-rich waters giving the pearls their unique colour - beneath the smouldering volcano Mt Karisoke, marking the border with Congo Libre. The Japanese are butchered by a guerilla movement, cue volcanic eruption and poisonous gas cloud that takes out the town below and all lifeforms in its path.
Fast forward to 2013. Our loved-up sea captains, Richard and Robin Mariner, are flying up valley to reconnoiter the ruined city and lake, largely swallowed up by jungle, in the company of Russian entrepreneurs Max Asov and Felix Makarov of the Bashnev/Sevmash consortium. The government is to sanction an expeditionary force to set up a site to exploit the mineral rich coltan sediment for the telecommunications industry – in a race to prevent it falling into the hands of Chinese competitor Han Wuhan, operating illegally from across the border, and protected by the guerilla Army of Christ the Infant, armed with modern terrorist weaponry, led by a charismatic leader who uses “witchcraft” to enforce his will.
Against a backdrop of civil unrest in the eve of the upcoming election, with daughter Celine Chaka challenging her father; distrust between the forces sent to take on the guerillas and establish a forward camp – the local militia and Spetnaz (the Russian Federation not known for its steamy jungles), and family tensions between Max Asov, his estranged daughter Anastasia, running an orphanage and her one-time beau, Ivan Yagula.
The first half is a bit slow, but once the two mega hovercraft head upstream and into direct resistance with the guerillas things hot up (cue gory killings and human booby traps). There are a few references to an earlier book set in the same country, with some of the same characters which I have not read, but this does not detract in any way. This is another action-filled adventure in the Mariner series, with Richard taking command when things inevitably go pear-shaped, and in this one, sensibly, Robin keeps well out of way.
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