THRILLER - FICTION
"ROSE" 
By Martin Cruz Smith
Every thing Smith writes is in my
opinion, pure gold.
A gold mining engineer named Jonathan Blair returns from Africa to Wigan England
in 1882 in some disgrace. There he is forced into an investigation to find the
missing church curator John Maypole, fiancé to Charlotte, daughter of his
employer, Bishop Haunay. During the investigation he gets on the wrong side of
many people, the primary of which is the miner Bill Jaxon, a champion kick
boxer. Jaxon is out to kill him after he approached Jaxon's lady love Rose
several times and would not stay warned away. Rose also works in the mines, but
rather than being dull, she is an exceptional woman and Blair cannot stay away
from her.
This is an excellent mystery with many
twists and filled with excitement and surprises. There is also a lot of
interesting historical information on mining operations in the late 1800's.
Reviewed by Kenneth S. Smith
7/1/2000
Available from:
The Ballentine Publishing Group
A Division of Random House
New York and Toronto
www.randomhouse.com
