cover image The Undertow

The Undertow

Tom Foote. Dufour Editions, $14.95 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-8023-1320-1

Touching on such hot topics as the peace process in Northern Ireland, international terrorism and political assassination, this debut suspense thriller makes a solid read for fans of the genre. After Jim Prendergast loses his wife and child during a stormy maritime race in Ireland's Galway Bay, he realizes that the ramming of his yacht was no accident and is haunted by dreams of revenge. A career seaman whose life is now empty, he undertakes an unusual shipping assignment to the Mediterranean, unaware that it will lead him into a high-seas intrigue involving the very men responsible for his family's death. The exotic locations--Libya, Malta, Spain, Mexico and the West of Ireland--lend the story color and excitement, and the author (himself an Irishman who went to sea at a young age) handles both maritime descriptions and a tight plot with admirable dexterity. (May)