A West quartet

By Morris West

Subjects: Adventure stories, Australian, Fiction, action & adventure, Australian Adventure stories, Fiction, short stories (single author), Fiction, thrillers, suspense

Description: - *The Naked Country* An adventure story about Mary and Dillon who live in the Australian outback and come into conflict with the local aboriginies. First published in 1960 this thriller is set in the Australian bush. It tell of the pursuit of a white station owner by an Aboriginal who wishes to avenge the intrusion of the white man. == - *Gallows on the Sand* Renn Lundigan found a gold coin on a tiny island off Australia's Barrier Reef. His research led him to believe that a galleon, containing twenty chests of minted Spanish gold, had foundered on the outer reef of the island. Renn realises the dangers involved in diving to find the wreck, but he soon has more than the sea to contend with when others discover his secret. == - *The Concubine* (aka *McCreary Moves In*) McCreary, an expert oil-driller convinced of his Irish good luck, with nothing to lose, accepts working for an ambitious and ruthless oil-trader. Power struggles on a ship, forbidden love, illegal business and friendship in limit situations appear throughout the book that takes place in a remote island of Indonesia, where the law is the struggle for survival and natural catastrophes are a threat. Morris West creates a main character that is a brave man, eager for adventure, but also for justice, and that will bring out his heroic side, but also the villain inside of him. Interesting focus of a personality and well illustrated descriptions of an exotic island and a native village. -- Mike McCleary is an out of work oilman in Djakarta, about to be forced out because of some trouble he was in. But then a very rich man offers to help him. Mr. Rubensohn has a surveyor’s map showing strong possibility of an oil strike on an island, and he will pay McCleary to bring in an oil well. Rubensohn also has another prize that McCleary wants, the girl named Lisette; a beautiful Eurasian girl Rubensohn had purchased from the Peacock Pavilion in Saigon. She was a prostitute, but McCleary wanted her, even if it meant killing Rubensohn for her. == - *Kundu* In a valley beneath the purple mountains of primitive New Guinea live a small band of white people. Some are consumed by enormous lusts for power that have led them to flee from Europe and here they can indulge their sick passions. But dark people of the valley are ruled by the throbbing, tribal Kundu drums that for centuries have urged them to frenzied sorcery. The result is an explosion of the terrible violence, echoing round the mountains like the Devil's own thunder let loose.