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Relative Danger

by Charles Benoit

Relative Danger reads more like a seasoned mystery adventure-thriller than a first novel, but that's what it is. The story is exciting, rambunctious, funny and full of action as well as beautifully written. Charles Benoit's humor is evident throughout without being totally in-your-face, and Mr. Benoit tells us a tale of murder and mystery set against the exotic backgrounds of Casablanca, Cairo, Bahrain (wherever that is!) and Singapore. Only an actual traveler journeying to such destinations could so skillfully describe the chaos one meets on entering those countries and locations.

Doug Pearce is a young innocent from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, a small town where he's worked at a brewery until recently laid off. An old woman contacts him called Edna, who was a friend of his rapscallion uncle Russell Pearce back in 1948, and wants him to see if he can track down his uncle's real murderer and clear the name of Russell's closest companion, Charley Hodge. Russell was shot in Singapore while attempting to smuggle out a rare red diamond, which has also disappeared. Charley was always the main suspect, since a gun was discovered with his initials on it, and the bullets matched those found in Russell's body. Edna will pay for all Doug's expenses. Since Doug has hardly ever been outside the small town of Pottsville, let alone the country, he accepts. What has he got to lose?

It turns out he can lose his life or be beaten into a pulp. But Doug starts by flying to Casablanca, where his Uncle Russell may have first picked up the diamond. Neither his father nor his family ever mentioned Uncle Russell, so Doug had always thought of him as rather an exciting black sheep, but the more he learns about his uncle's activities, the less he likes him. Edna has given him the names of people to contact, and Doug follows her suggestions – except that those he goes to see claim they know nothing and never heard of Russell Pearce. Then the first contact he's made is killed – run over on the sidewalk by a car, a purposeful hit-and-run.

Doug meets Sergei Nicholaisen at an outdoor café, who mentions that Casablanca still has a red light district, although most of the old quarter is gone. Sergei is an older man who takes Doug under his wing, and they plan to meet for dinner. Single and always on the lookout for 'hot babes', Doug visits the red light district only to find the females there unattractive. Then he goes to see another name on Edna's list, a Hammad Al-Kady. Mr. Al-Kady seems primarily interested in sleeping and senility – but there is where Doug meets his daughter, Aisha. Aisha is startlingly beautiful, and even better, knows all about Russell Pearce and the red diamond.

In rapid succession, Doug meets a number of people and is gradually able to assemble his Uncle Russell's movements while fighting off thugs intent on beating him up, getting thrown in jail at the Cairo airport, and running across rooftops with Aisha to avoid capture. Aisha and Sergei either follow or precede him at all his destinations, and it's Sergei who gets him out of jail. While he's incarcerated, he meets still another American who calls himself Abe. When he's released from the Arabic prison, Abe leads Aisha to him, and Doug's erotic dreams are realized when she falls on him hungrily to have sex.

Abe tells Doug he must get out of Cairo because vicious people are looking for him – so Doug must get to Bahrain, then go on to Singapore. In Singapore he eventually finds the red diamond – and gives it to his uncle's murderer. But the story ends with a twist so unexpected and unpredictable that you can only applaud this neophyte detective's growing skill – and Charles Benoit's ability.

Relative Danger is aptly named, and an exuberant story using a young, green, unsophisticated hero who finds himself in the middle of a situation where he has to use wits he never thought he had. Charles Benoit's talent
as a cartoonist and his understanding of humor come to the foreground in several scenes (the Cairo airport comes to mind for one) and his characterizations are both well-rounded and totally believable. Relative Danger is one book you shouldn't miss!

Alan Paul Curtis

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