One of the first things I did on our acquiring a computer was to look for sites relating to `Desmond Reid`. I was disappointed not to find any. You can imagine my surprise on eventually learning that there was no such person !

Somewhat better informed now, I can tell you that the `Desmond Reid` who wrote this particular story was A A Glynn.

It is a superior effort in many ways. The story begins with Blake and secretary Paula Dane finding a corpse in the back of his car. Before long our intrepid sleuth is en route to Mexico, in hot pursuit of homicidal archaeologists.

No-one is going to mistake Glynn for a literary genius, but generally, despite occasional lapses, his writing is pretty capable. I notice that whenever one character, Inga Martinside appears, we get an attack of dumbed-down writing. While it may be that the writer experienced a rush of blood to the head when contemplating Scandinavian beauties, I suspect she was added-in as an afterthought, particularly since the tale can be told fairly readily without her.

There is one other section that I suspect was grafted on at a later stage, but as that brings us the marvellous simile "Professor John Martinside clutched the edge of the passenger seat like a rooster trying to ride out a storm", I am prepared to forgive this.

For all it`s shortcomings, the basic plot is pretty damn good, and there is an effective twist in the tale for added spice. It` told with pace and verve, which counts for a lot.

All in all, well worth a read.