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Wallace Boys #2
02 The Sands of the Skeleton Coast
Nigel, Bruce and St Helenian friend Jimmy Fowler risk their necks by accepting a ride aboard a motor yacht, the St Valery, for their return to Cape Town. The owner, Barry Jones, wants to make a detour to see the terrifying Namibian Skeleton Coast where numerous ships have come to grief, including the Dundee Star on which Barry’s father worked during World War Two. Aboard the wreck is a cache of diamonds, and Barry knows just how to get it, and nothing, it seems, will stop him!
This desperate adventure takes the boys to the edge of danger where they fight the most dangerous of the world’s deserts with its mysterious plant and animal life, the weird Welwitschia, the grotesque elephant’s foot, the desert lions, the brown hyena and the Namib sidewinder snake.
They even encounter a galleon several kilometres inland of ‘the coast that walks’! All the while, they are dogged by the presence of Isaacs and Lambert.
This desperate adventure takes the boys to the edge of danger where they fight the most dangerous of the world’s deserts with its mysterious plant and animal life, the weird Welwitschia, the grotesque elephant’s foot, the desert lions, the brown hyena and the Namib sidewinder snake.
They even encounter a galleon several kilometres inland of ‘the coast that walks’! All the while, they are dogged by the presence of Isaacs and Lambert.
- GenresAdventure
184 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1993
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About the author
Duncan Watt
26 books1 followerBorn near Victoria Falls in what was then Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, Watt, the only child of British parents, traveled to more than 80 countries around the world. Finally settling in Singapore in 1976.
He worked as a teacher and administrator at the British Council until he retired in 1992.
For 16 years, he read the prime time news on Channel 5 for the then Singapore Broadcasting Corporation. He also hosted an afternoon program on Symphony 92.4, playing light classics, until 2004.
His 20-book Wallace Boys series was set in far-flung places such as Kariba, Zimbabwe, the Skeleton Coast and the Scottish Highlands. He researched the locations for his books as thoroughly as possible, making it a point not to write anything he himself had not experienced.
Watt was diagnosed with liver cancer in June 2016. He died on 7 September 2017 at the age of 74.
He worked as a teacher and administrator at the British Council until he retired in 1992.
For 16 years, he read the prime time news on Channel 5 for the then Singapore Broadcasting Corporation. He also hosted an afternoon program on Symphony 92.4, playing light classics, until 2004.
His 20-book Wallace Boys series was set in far-flung places such as Kariba, Zimbabwe, the Skeleton Coast and the Scottish Highlands. He researched the locations for his books as thoroughly as possible, making it a point not to write anything he himself had not experienced.
Watt was diagnosed with liver cancer in June 2016. He died on 7 September 2017 at the age of 74.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 7, 2020
Their Christmas break is nearly over so the Wallace brothers and their friend, Jimmy, are leaving St. Helena and going back to Africa before the new semester starts. They have booked passage on RMS St. Helena but, at almost the last minute, they meet Barry Jones and are invited to crew for him in exchange for a ride to South Africa on his motor yacht, the St. Valery. The boys' uncle and Jimmy's parents give permission so they set off. What they don't know is that Barry just wanted a crew, he has not been entirely honest with them about where he is going and what he is planning to do once he gets there. He's actually planning to search for treasure on a ship that ran aground on the dangerous Skeleton Coast.
It's an exciting story with a lot of detail about travel by yacht and a very colorful and dangerous setting on the Skeleton Coast. This would easily be a 5-star book if the author could have just stopped with the footnotes already.
I had to laugh when the author did exactly the same thing as he did in Sculduggery in the South Atlantic. On page 30 there is a footnote explaining that "for'ard" is a nautical term meaning "forward" and on page 31 he uses the even more nautical term "fiddle" (no, not a violin) with no footnote. Also on page 30 he thinks nothing of using the brand name Handyplast. So why do we need a footnote for for'ard? We don't. We can figure it out from context. Put all of the footnotes in the back of the book, if you must, or get rid of them.
It's an exciting story with a lot of detail about travel by yacht and a very colorful and dangerous setting on the Skeleton Coast. This would easily be a 5-star book if the author could have just stopped with the footnotes already.
I had to laugh when the author did exactly the same thing as he did in Sculduggery in the South Atlantic. On page 30 there is a footnote explaining that "for'ard" is a nautical term meaning "forward" and on page 31 he uses the even more nautical term "fiddle" (no, not a violin) with no footnote. Also on page 30 he thinks nothing of using the brand name Handyplast. So why do we need a footnote for for'ard? We don't. We can figure it out from context. Put all of the footnotes in the back of the book, if you must, or get rid of them.
Displaying 1 of 1 review