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Search for Mystery Book

London, United Kingdom


Please could anybody help me to identify a book I read a long time ago and which I have been trying to find for the past nearly ten years? The details I can remember, which are very brief, are:

1) It is a novel, not historical fact.

2) It is about Tonga in the South Pacific.

3) It refers to the Tonga Trench, the deepest sea in the world.

4) Hong Kong somehow comes into the story because in this novel is mentioned my uncle, Captain Bob (Robert) Newton of the 5th/7th Rajput Regiment, Indian Army, who was killed in Hong Kong during the Japanese invasion of 1941. His heroic death, under fire, is chronicled in this book - strangely, since it is a novel.

5) I think the book is a thriller.

6) However, two books which it is NOT, are:

"Tales of the Tikongs" and "Rascals in Paradise" -both are about Tonga but the former is satirical and the latter is non-fiction.

Does anybody know the name of the book and the author? And whether it is still in print? (I first read the book in 1986 or 1987, at which time I think it was newly published and then I lent it to someone who did not return it to me)

Very many grateful thanks to anyone who can help me find this mystery book so that I can then know the title and the author and, hopefully, buy another copy!

If you are unable to help me in my search please would you kindly pass this message on to a more suitable source?

Anne Ammundsen

arbil44 [at] yahoo [dot] com