The Megacull

by Duff Hart-Davis

Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. Good, 1st Edition published 1968 by Constable. D/J shows signs of shelfwear and has a few small rips/tears. Rubbed out pencilling still visible on front end-paper. Actual book still very good, clean and bright, tight spine/binding

207 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Peter Duff Hart-Davis, generally known as Duff Hart-Davis was a British biographer, naturalist and journalist, who wrote for The Independent. He was married to Phyllida Barstow and had one son and one daughter, the journalist Alice Hart-Davis. He lived at Owlpen, in Gloucestershire.

Reviews

[Grant Hutchison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one has an almost meditative start, as the narrator (a newspaper reporter) spends a day deer-stalking - the detail here is convincing and the atmosphere of the Scottish mountains is well evoked. The discovery of a corpse in the heather triggers a personal investigation of secretive activities on the neighbouring Highland estate - during which our hero turns into an improbable action man, equipped with a variety of combat and fast-driving skills.
A mass-murder plot is uncovered (the "megacull" of the title, linking back to the deer-stalking activities of the opening chapters) and then there are hovercraft, helicopters, STOL jets, chases, gunfights and narrow escapes as the narrator bounces madly around the country helping the police foil the plot.
The denoument, when it comes, is oddly low-key, but notable (for a thriller written in the 1960s) for the role it gives to a female character.

Well written, fun and madly implausible.