While his name may not yet possess the currency of more familiar practitioners, many readers now recognise Brian Callison as one of the most accomplished adventure writers this country can boast, with his fellow scribes happy to present laurels.
The jacket of this new book may suggest a dotty tome on Egyptian mysticism, but this is a riveting piece of maritime action with a fifty-year-old mystery at its centre. Among the legends of the Second World War, the myth of the Stollenberg Convoy was one of the most memorable. Orders were sent out as the Third Reich collapsed to disperse the countless looted treasures across the globe, with the most valued (and mysterious) item entrusted to SS Colonel Manfred Stollenberg. It never arrived. Merchant sailor Michael Kyle becomes interested in the case via his historian flatmate David McDonald. But McDonald dies in a strange accident, and Kyle's reluctance to accept the official explanation soon embroils him in a highly dangerous situation with the eponymous legacy at its centre.
Kyle is strongly characterised, and the pacing has all the energy we expect from this author. It goes without saying that the nautical detail has all the requisite salty authenticity.
