When Julia undertook to find her cousin, Colin Munro, last heard of sailing a yacht off the north coast of Africa, the quest seemed lighthearted enough. But, before she had finished, she was involved with Moorish antique dealers, a Belgian woman archaeologist, Purcell, the enigmatic barkeeper, and American airman, the saurian Mr. St. John, and numerous other characters charming or sinister. Julia’s search takes her a cargo-boart to Casablanca, and thence to Tangier, Fez and Marrakech. Her ‘dumb-blonde’ beauty, camouflaging a lively intelligence, gets her through unexpected difficulties and dangers. Colin is found, and the mysterious reason for his disappearance at last revealed…
The first in a series of eight Julia Probyn novels, A Lighthearted Quest displays a blend of humour and adventure which transports us to exotic places and introduces us to entertaining people, while throwing light on the explosive political issues that French Morocco encountered in the 50s.
