Before Gabriel Hunt, there was Mark Stone, or Stoner, as he's called for no reason revealed in this book. He's not really much like Hunt, but he is a treasure hunter. Ralph Hayes was a familiar name on paperback covers in the '70s. He wrote a lot of action-adventure series and westerns as well as standalones, all of them for the lower-end houses like Manor, Leisure, and Belmont. None of the ones I've read are anything special, but I was feeling nostalgic and thought I'd take another look. Sure enough, I was right. Nothing special.
In All that Glitters, Stone's not exactly hunting treasure. A famous (and priceless) artifact known as the Southern Cross is stolen from the Topkapi museum. It's taken so easily that it makes you wonder why Peter Ustinov had so much trouble. Once the cross is stolen, it's sold, stolen again, and so on, always with Stone in pursuit but one step behind. The characters aren't particularly memorable, the action isn't all that interesting, and the ending is no big surprise. All in all, a workmanlike job, but nothing you need to go out of your way to find. I like the cover, though.
5 comments:
It seems like you can pretty much decade a book by its cover.
I have some of these STONER novels. I like the covers, too.
Hayes wasn't so bad. I think The Hunter was probably his best series.
Not bad, just not particularly memorable. I have several books in The Hunter series, but for some reason I never read that one.
I don't know anything about this book, but I love your line about Ustinov.
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