When English boat builder Peter "Hal" Halloran strikes up a conversation in a South African with a drunk ex-pat, he thinks little of the man's rambling confidence that he and a group of partisans fighting in Italy during the war came across a convoy of gold and jewels. The story's interesting, but Hal has a life of his own that he's putting together.
A decade later, still reeling from the drunk-driving accident that killed his wife, shipyard owner Hal comes across Walker again, and this time he has a plan. The gold has been safely stashed in a cave, and Walker reckons there's about 4 tonnes in ingots. Hal's plan is to melt the gold down and smuggle it out of Italy disguised as the keel of a boat, but they have a time limit - they can only sell it legally until the middle of April, and selling it illegally will massively reduced the amount of money they can get for it.
The Golden Keel was Bagley's first book, but it shows all the hallmarks of his best writing. The pace is brisk, the plot involving, the narrative tight, and the characterisation deft and layered. Published in 1965, it's necessarily dated (the key events occurred during the second World War) but loses nothing despite this. I first discovered Bagley when I was in high school, and I devoured his writing. I've returned to it several times since, and have a few favourites, but like almost all his works. I've decided that, over the next few weeks, I'll work my way through the entire collection in chronological order.- Alex
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