Long Lost Book based in Tonga, in the South Pacific

[Anne]

Hello - this site has been recommended to me by another Goodreads Group - "What's the name of that book" where I'm continuing my search for a long lost mystery novel about Tonga in the South Pacific. I've been searching for a very long time, so far with no luck. I've kissed some toads in this search as well, which has been very expensive since I have to buy and read all suggestions which seem credible! - the latest being "The Change Agent" which cost me £21 to have airlifted from Australia! Now that I've got it I know that this is most definitely not the book I'm looking for! Unfortunately the following is the best I can supply by way of information. If a lot of people respond with suggestions I will be overwhelmed, especially with Christmas so near, so please excuse me if I do not respond immediately. Also, lots of people have told me that I have not remembered correctly. This isn't the case! It was a moment in time which I will never forget because it was so extraordinary - the fictional book is about Tonga and my uncle's death in Hong Kong was definitely included. I read the book when I was actually living in Tonga and I remember exactly which room I was in when I read it. My husband has the exact same recollection on this point as I do, so, yes, I am certain only of the following pointers!

The book I am trying to find was read by me when we lived in Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tonga, between 1985-1987. After reading the book, I lent it to a Tongan who did not return it to me (I've written to that person twice asking for it back, to no avail) and my husband also read it before it went AWOL! As you will see from the details below, the story was based in Tonga. My extensive enquiries, over the years since, have led me to believe that nobody in Tonga has read this book (apart from my husband and me)! This is surprising, since it was very exciting. Being located in Tonga it is amazing to me that nobody there seems to know anything at all about this book! Any assistance from Goodreads members in this Group would be enormously appreciated, thank you.

1) It is a novel, not historical fact. Published no later than 1987, but more likely no later than 1986.

2) It is 'located' in Tonga - I think some of the characters 'stayed' at the Dateline Hotel in Nuku'alofa (a real hotel).

3) Some action takes place underwater in the Tonga Trench.

4) Hong Kong somehow comes into the story because in this novel is mentioned my uncle, Captain Bob (Robert) Newton of the 5th/7th Rajput Regiment, Indian Army, who was killed in Hong Kong during the Japanese invasion of 1941. His heroic death, under fire, is chronicled in this book - quite extraordinary, since the book is fictional and about Tonga - not Hong Kong!

5) I think the book is a thriller (or possibly science fiction, though less likely).

6) It has to have been published in 1987 or prior to that (definitely not later).

7) However, books which it is not, are:

Friendly Isles: a tale of Tonga , by Patricia Ledyard, Vava'u Press 1984 .
On Their Majesties Service, by Captain C.H. Hill-Willis, Neptune Press 1983
The Fire Has Jumped, edited by Garth Rogers, Institute of Pacific Studies 1986
Lost Paradise, Ian Cameron, Salem House Publications, Topsfield , Mass. , 1987.
Night of Error, by Desmond Bagley, St. Martins 1987 Solomon's Seal, by Hammond Innes, Collins 1980.
Sphere, by Michael Crichton, Knopf 1987.
Steel Tiger, by Stirling Silliphant, Ballantine 1983
Pacific Odyssey, by Gwenda Cornell, Coles 1985
Rascals in Paradise by James A. Michener
Tempest and Torment by Graeme Clarke
The Trulove (O'Brian) Peking Incident (Atcheson)
Lighter Than A Feather (Westheimer)
Shanghai (Marshall)
The Admiral (Dibner)
The Change agent by Neil Evans

[Anne]

Hello again! While I wait for an inter library loan of "The Golden Spike" to arrive (and having ruled out "The Change Agent"), I've been in touch with a helpful librarian at the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington. This librarian has told me that one of the resources he wants to check, on my behalf, is currently unavailable on account of recent earthquakes in New Zealand.

I am wondering whether any of you could assist in finding/checking his comments as follows:

"The Cumulated Fiction Index was published in the UK and indexes fiction titles published from 1945-1999 and I would hope this might index fiction by location ie the Pacific or even Tonga."

I'm not anywhere near a large library so am hoping one of you might be able to check this index?

Many thanks.

[Anne]

Well, I've just heard from my local library that they are unable to provide me with "The Golden Spike" through their inter library loan system. The following review of this book leads me to believe that it really isn't the book I'm looking for anyway, since it seems to be mainly focused around the Auckland Islands, rather than Tonga being the centre of the story. So I have decided not to purchase the book, having recently had another expensive failure with "The Change Agent"!

This first novel by an Australian TV journalist finds its inspiration in a real life occurrence: the sinking in 1866 off the Auckland Islands of the General Grant, an American ship carrying nine tons of gold--the greatest lost treasure in history. Sad to say, there's no gold for the reader here--just tin characters, lead dialogue, and a plastic denouement. In the present day, documentary videomaker John Barr (""handsome in a rugged, battered sort of way"") decides to find and film the General Grant and its treasure. He probably couldn't do it on his own, but--what luck some people have!--before long he seems to be possessed (the narrative is a bit ambiguous here) by the spirit of James Teer, one of the few survivors of the shipwreck. With the aid of Teer's rather blustery spirit, and a Maori woman with the wonderful name of Wild McFee, Barr soon locates the treasure on an unoccupied Auckland Island. A strange South American named Jorge Ogilvie then enters the picture, first lending Barr money and then attempting to steal the treasure to finance anticommunist forces in South America! After various noisy doings, including a preposterous encounter with a barge of Vietnam refugees and an attack by Tai pirates, Barr (or is it Teer?) and Wild wind up adrift in the Pacific. Morrisby crams his story with tidbits about New Zealand history, foods, weather, and so on--but odd facts do not an exciting narrative make. The plot drags along from Hong Kong to Taiwan to Tonga--but odd locales do not. . .etc., etc. Despite the extensive information about sailing and the sea, don't bring this one to the beach with you--unless you plan to fall asleep and develop a tan, the only hint of gold this novel can supply.