The Chalk Circle

Trew's ( Bannister's Chart ) thriller has many lose ends--and a plot and characters that get lost in them. South Africa-based air-charter pilot Johnnie Johnson flies Jan Wessels and Piet Pienaar into civil war-torn Mozambique for some deep-sea fishing. All are watched closely by a mysterious American and by South African Trudi Braun, anticipating a drop of some kind. (Pienaar is actually working for South African Intelligence, and he's watching Johnson, too.) Wessels and Pienaar are shipwrecked and Johnson crashlands in the jungle with Trudi aboard. Johnson heads inland and, when he doesn't return, Trudi treks south along the coast. She is joined by Wessels and Pienaar, and the three encounter a Mozambique army patrol led by a Portuguese commandant who turns out to be a former South African political prisoner. Further disclosures ensue concerning the true identities of various characters. As implausible as it is exotic, the novel fails to win credibility or the reader's interest. (Sept.)