nti

rctic |

THIS WEEK in Books Now we'll be voyaging across a
bizarre and wondrous variety of landscapes: the frozen but
far from empty expanses of Antarctica; the shadowy
spawning grounds of the Cold War; the corpse-and-quip-
strewn streets of a 1950s “shamus’”’; and the treacherous

minefields of Glasnost.

The Greenpeace Book of An-
tarctica (MacMillan of Canada;
192 pp.; $29.95 in hardcover) is a
beautifully photographed in-
troduction to.the fragile ecology of
the southern polar regions of this
planet's seventh continent.

It is unfortunate that the
world-wide environmental
organization known as
Greenpeace has not orchestrated
all of its previous conservation ef-
forts as well as is the case in An-
tarctica.

This is a reasoned, informative,
educational and balanced loot at
an intriguing piece of real estate
and its multitude of fascinating
denizens. . . ;

included are details on climate, |
geology, flora and fauna, explora-
tions by humankind and the issues
in which Antarctica is either cur-
rently embroiled or may soon be.

This is both a scientific reference
book (complete with high-quality
photographs, illustrations, graphs
and charts) and a reasoned piat-
form for ecological awareness.

Glaringly absent are the antics
and shrill stridency that have mar-

red some Greenpeace objectives
in the past. .

The Greenpeace Book of An-
tarctica certainly drives home its
environmental theme but does so
intelligently in a balanced
framework that, not incidentally,
makes this a valued reference for
all of us.

MIKE
STEELE

book reviewer

The literary realm of espionage
has, as is the case with any genre,
a varying topography: of valleys —
there are far too many and of soar-
ing peaks far too few. Firmly
esconced high above the competi-
tion are the works of LeCarre,
Deighton — and Anthony Price.

Price’s latest book, A New Kind
of War (MacMillan of Canada; 248
pp.: $24.95 in hardcover), is an
absolute imperative for fans of the
British spy and principal character
of Sion Crossing and For The

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MONDAY NIGHTS

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40 pasta dishes to choose from. Choice of Meat

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TUESDAY NIGHTS

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7 Chicken dishes to choose from. Served with
salad, rice or baked potato.

WEDNESDAY NIGHTS

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6 Great dishes to choose from. Served with
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Good of The State, Dr. David
Audley. :

A New Kind of War is a step
back in time, a totally believable
visit to Audley’s beginnings in the
spy game in the turmoil and

uplicity of the Second World
War's aftermath.

It is a period of shadow and illu-
sion but with far more cynicism
than magic, a period that gave rise
to the espionage empires of Allied
and Soviet intelligence.

In A New Kind of War, Captain
“Freddie” Fattorini is introduced
to the machinations of a special
British army squad, a group whose
eccentricities are legion and
bewildering as they hunt an
undefined quarry in post-War
Greece and Germany.

Not until near the novel’s end
does the goal gain any sort of
definition for the mystified and
frustrated Captain whose teaming
with the seemingly callow Audley
is far from coincidental.

As Fattorini eventually discovers,
the Second World War may have
drawn to its violent conclusion but
little has been resolved by the
conflict.

In fact, it has but cleared the
stage for a new act and a new
power-struggle; one without
clear-cut boundaries, few iden-
tifiable friends and one to be
fought more with the tools of
subterfuge than guns.

It is, in short, A New Kind of
War.

23 - Friday, October 14, 1988 - North Shore News

KUL

smear

Jumping forward in time we hear
the distant echoes of that struggle
in an excellent thriller from the
pen (or word-processor) of Camp-
bell Armstrong in White Light
(William Morrow & Co.; 381 pp.;
$18.95 in hardcover).

This is the dawning era of
Glasnost and the thawing of
East-West relations under Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev. But not
everyone is happy with this
dramatic easing of political ten-

sions.

Vested interests in the KGB and
the CIA would much rather main-
tain the status quo of distrust,
potential nuclear Armageddon and
fat counter-intelligence budgets.

Both sides are manipulating a
coalition of Balkan State exiles and
Scotland Yard Inspector Frank
Pagan has stumbled into the no-
man’s land between the warring
factions.

White Light is a tightly-woven
piece of work with an intriguing
cast of characters on both sides of
the fron Curtain.

And speaking of characters,
what about private eye Pau! Pine,

that tough, sardonic champion of
the hapless and downtrodden of
1950s Chicago? Glad you asked.

Pine was the creation of author
Howard Browne (currently a
script-writer for the television
trade) in his days as a novelist and
short-story craftsman during the
heyday of the snap-brimmed,
two-fisted heroes of detective fic-
tion.

Browne eventually became
bored with this particular brand of
writing which is a great pity as
reprints of Halo In Brass and The
Taste of Ashes clearly dernon-
Strate.

The Pau! Pine novels are witty
and, if slightly dated, occasionally
have almost contemporary insights
(Pine, in 1957, observes that tele-
vision commercials invariably
come in louder and clearer than
the programs they interrupt, for
example).

They're sexy (more daring than
mast from that period), violent
(bui the hero doesn’t fire a shot in
either of these two books) and
gifted with unusual plot-twists at
the very end that should catch
most readers unawares. .

Halo In Brass (1949) and my
personal favorite The Taste of
Ashes (1957) have both been re-
issued this year by Dennis
McMillan Publications (distributed
locally by Raincoast Books) and
sell for $11.50 in paperback.

True P.[. addicts will undoubt-
edly want to add both of these
books to their collections.

Anda Panther —
Ina Pear Tree!

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