The Chosen Instrument
Published:
1969 London, Hutchinson1969 New York, Harper & Row (as “Boka Lives”)
Comments:“Fine excitement and pace, with some extremely well-drawn and unusual characters.”San Francisco Chronicle
“Did I say that this amusing and exciting story kept me up until bird call? It did.”Book World
John Carlyle gets a contract to build a road on the island of Tetra which has a population half the size of London, and a stern military government. He arrives at the airport accompanied by his tough Welsh assistant, Dai Owen, and almost immediately the trouble starts. The island turns out to be seething on the brink of revolution, with a shadowy young peasant leader somewhere in the background.
John and Dai’s first taste of Boka’s power comes on their trip back from the airport when someone starts to roll a few tons of rock down on top of them. Their host, Sir Malcolm Wreford, shows by his behavior than that all is not well on top as well as below in this particular community. John and Dai decide to investigate, and are before too long confronting the mysterious Boka, and, more to the point as far as John is concerned, his beautiful and equally mysterious sister. Events follow thick and fast – the two engineers have set off many more kinds of dynamite than they are used to.
Henry Calvin has written a gripping and highly topical story.
John and Dai’s first taste of Boka’s power comes on their trip back from the airport when someone starts to roll a few tons of rock down on top of them. Their host, Sir Malcolm Wreford, shows by his behavior than that all is not well on top as well as below in this particular community. John and Dai decide to investigate, and are before too long confronting the mysterious Boka, and, more to the point as far as John is concerned, his beautiful and equally mysterious sister. Events follow thick and fast – the two engineers have set off many more kinds of dynamite than they are used to.
Henry Calvin has written a gripping and highly topical story.
Copyright 2025 The Estate of Clifford Hanley