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"When Julia undertakes to find her cousin, Colin Munro, last heard of sailing a yacht off the north coast of Africa, the quest seems lighthearted enough. But the search gets her 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, Tangier, Fez and Marrakech. Her 'dumb-blonde' beauty, camouflaging a lively intelligence, gets her through unexpected difficulties and dangers. The first in a series of eight Julia Probyn novels, The Lighthearted Quest displays a blend of humour and adventure which transports us to exotic places and introduces us to entertaining people, but also throws a good deal of light on the explosive political issues that French Morocco encountered in the 50s.'Here's an answer for the multitude of readers demanding a good story, adventure, mystery [and] romance' -Kirkus

Julia Probyn-an old friend of many readers-is sailing off the west coast of Scotland. On the desolate island of Erinish Beg, she and her cousin are startled to see a sky-blue pole rise up out of the ground at their feet. Military Intelligence sends Colonel Jamieson to investigate this find. The action moves from the Erinishes to a tweed-shop in Tobermory, an archaeological dig on Lewis, an island off the County Mayo, and finally to a dramatic end in the Scillies. The mystery of the sky-blue pole is solved soon enough; but there is much journeying, heart-searching and danger for Julia before the whole system of espionage is laid bare. During these events Julia, more and more attracted to Colonel Jamieson, finds in him the man she will marry.Miss Bridge's many admirers will warm to this tale of love and adventure, full of authentic local colour, well informed about the cold war of science on which its plot is based.

Miss Bridge takes us to Portugal; not only the well-known world of Estoril and the Embassies, but behind the scenes, into the life lived on country estates by the Portuguese themselves. Both aspects are seen through the fresh eyes of a young Hungarian girl just released from behind the Iron Curtain, who also gives vivid and horrifying glimpses of life in Soviet-dominated Hungary from 1945 to 1955. Communist intrigues lend suspense and excitement to this book full of rapid movement, when any drive in a car may hold possibilities of danger; and readers who enjoyed the calm, dumb-blonde Julia Probyn in The Lighthearted Quest will be glad to meet her again here, playing her accustomed role of outsmarting the professionals at their own game. But though lively this book penetrates further into the life of another country, and gives too a revealing account of the impact of western life and behaviour on a highly intelligent observer from 'the other side'.

In Julia Probyn's fifth adventure, first published in 1965, Julia moves to a remote French mountain village near the Spanish border, while her husband, a British Intelligence agent, is on a secret assignment. As always, adventures comes Julia's way. A sabotage plot is underway, with France's gas reserved being targeted. Julia is six months pregnant as the plot unfolds, and her early labor creates additional suspense. Boy and man take to each other, and it becomes clear that Gerald will be an ideal stepfather. On his part, Gerald insists that she come to Ireland to see his modest home and meet his friends and neighbors before she makes up her mind, for his world is far different from the glamorous cosmopolitan one she is accustomed to.Julia's quiet vacation is interrupted when she stumbles upon a plot by an unknown land speculator who, with the unwitting aid of an attractive American woman and an Irish poet, is surreptitiously buying a strip of land along the coast for the purpose of building a huge resort hotel and casino. The intrepid Julia is drawn in as a participant when she joins Gerald in his investigation of this devious scheme, which will destroy the wild beauty of the coast and disrupt the peace of the community.Ann Bridge has woven a web of intrigue against the background of a remote Irish village, its people, and their customs. The unexpected denouement and happy ending will delight the author's many devoted readers.

The last thing recently widowed Julia Probyn expects to find on the lush and charming island of Madeira is a clue to her husband's mysterious death, for Colonel Jamieson perished somewhere in the wilds of Central Asia while on a top-secret mission for British Intelligence. No sooner does Julia arrive at Madeira with her infant son and his devoted Nanny, however, than a series of strange, sinister, but apparently unconnected events begins thrusting itself upon her.Displaying her usual intuitive flair for deduction, Julia soon concludes that, for some reason, the Russians are experimenting with a powerful new chemical on Madeira's wild sheep. But why? And why was she told that her husband died "because he went out without wearing his respirator"?A small Madeiran peasant boy shows the same lethargic symptoms as the sheep, and-Julia suddenly realizes-as her husband had himself displayed shortly before walking into a Soviet ambush half a world away. Has she stumbled upon a testing ground for nerve gas in Madeira? And is that what her husband's last mission was all about? Keeping a firm grip on her nerves and her imagination, Julia forces herself to learn the exact and painful details surrounding the abortive mission and her husband's death.Once in possession of the few tenuous facts that anyone in London knows and can tell about Colonel Jamieson's death, Julia summons her cousin, Colin Monro, to Madeira and, together, they blow the entire Russian plot wide open. Here is high adventure interwoven with all the sights, sounds and scenes of fecund Madeira in a story as exotic and spellbinding as Ann Bridge's many readers have come to expect from her gifted pen.

In the beautiful countryside of Portugal, erstwhile British secret agent Julia Probyn is to attend a royal wedding. But her former acquaintance, Countess Hetta Páloczy, the young Hungarian refugee, unwittingly gets them both tangled in Cold War intrigue. After Hetta accidentally uncovers a Communist plot to assassinate an American admiral in Spain, she is a marked woman yet again and must flee to Portugal. But even in the tranquil beauty of Gralheira, peril lurks. Unluckily for the assassins, these women are no strangers to danger.In The Episode at Toledo, book six in the series, Julia is joined by Hetta and Luzia, uniting all our heroines from The Julia Probyn Mysteries.