R D Byron-Smith

Fatal Voyage R D Byron-Smith

Driven by rich characterization and strong plot, "Fatal Voyage" takes readers on a journey of old-fashioned action-adventure and modern-day edginess. As World War II breaks out British Navy Intelligence Officer Lt. Ian Fleming is sent on a perilous mission to Brazil, a hot-bed of cutthroat Nazi sympathizers and German spies with designs of taking over South America and invading the United States. The suave lieutenant, not long out of Eton, is seduced by an exotic dancer who might well be the prototype for every "Bond girl" to follow in Fleming's lustrous career writing spy novels. In hints of other "007" things to come, the dashing lieutenant receives spy gear from a British bureaucrat who identifies himself by a single initial and faces a megalomaniac who thinks Adolf Hitler's plan of world domination is good foreign policy. Integral to the thrilling story are memorable British merchant seamen, Latin mobsters and so many goose-stepping Gestapo you could exhume the Third Reich. The novel also makes a port call in 1940 Hollywood, where the author packs in enough movie land glitz to fill a marquee. Even heartthrob, actor Errol Flynn makes a cameo. "Fatal Voyage" is an adventure story triumph. - Pilar Publishing of California.