The Hunting Season

After witnessing a murder in France, playwright Anthony Moore travels to Canada where he is pursued by kidnappers, a youthful band of terrorists, and a mysterious individual who stands to profit greatly from Moore's demise

Two baffling calamities befall playwright Anthony Moore while he is sailing home to England from France. First, he witnesses a man being murdered aboard ship. The next day, someone accosts Moore, grabs the manuscript of his new play and tosses it overboard. Moore's apprehension increases when, on landing, he meets Hary Seddall, an unkempt but cunning British Home Office official who is investigating the murder. A policeman alerts Moore to Seddall's unscrupulousness, but the playwright gamely puts these concerns aside when he leaves for Canada to adapt Dickens's Bleak House for a theatrical production. Moore's affable collaborator, Bruce Baldwin, and his comely wife, Sandy, warmly welcome him, yet Moore's elation vanishes when his apartment is burglarized, and unknown assailants kill Bruce shortly afterward. Assisted by the enigmatic and seemingly ubiquitous Seddall, Moore and Sandy try to solve these crimesplus the kidnapping of a wealthy Canadian businessmanand the trail leads to a beautiful Italian terrorist and her menacing uncle. Despite some spirited action, the novel becomes extremely confusing as it moves toward its improbable finale.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In Mayo's first, a peudo-mystery/intrigue, a recently successful British playwright and one-time government agent, Anthony Moore, interrupts a murder in his ship cabin while returning to London from France. He reports the incident, but no one believes him because the body promptly disappears. Then someone throws the manuscript of his new play overboard. Disgruntled, he travels to Canada to work on a dramatization of Bleak House and rewrite his lost play; however, strange events soon involve him in murder and mayhem. The pasteboard plot lends feeble support to paper-doll characters who act without much thought or motivation. And while the prose flows smoothly enough, it builds no tension, encourages no empathy, reveals no depth. Not recommended. Rex E. Klett, Anson Cty. Lib., Wadesboro, N.C.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.