Kick Start

by Douglas Rutherford

A motorcycle ace rider is blackmailed into retrieving a cannister of deadly bacteria from enemy agents.

190 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Pseudonym of James Douglas Rutherford McConnell. He was born in Kilkenny, Ireland. He studied at Clare College, Cambridge. In the Second World War, he served in the British Intelligence Corps in North Africa and Italy. After the war, he worked as a teacher at Eton College. Apart from writing crime fiction, he also wrote books of language instruction and collaborated on two novels with Francis Durbridge.

Reviews

[Peter]

Valentine Kroll steals a $25,000 necklace for a fence using a foolproof plan based on his Norton bike, in this early 70s thriller. From London to capture in Rome, the gullible Kroll is forced by Interpol to collect a vial in an earthquake flattened Tunisian town threatened by an about-to-burst dam. Kareth is the attractive woman, like just about everyone else not who they seem to be, who helps him as the bike is crucial for escape to an unexpected ending for the genre. Quite an exciting plot-driven story, simplistic on the surface but unexpectedly deep in places. 3.5 stars.