By John Fardell
Faber and Faber £6.99

After darstadly deeds are done in Genoa, the more prosaic surroundings of a venerable scientific body are host to a lecture by Professor Gadling. Supported by his fellow professor adventurers, as well as the children Sam, Zara, Ben, Marcia, and Adam he finds that he is shouted down about his theories on undiscovered species. Although sad he is cheered up when approached by Wilfred who found a rare skull whilst on National Service in the far east. Realising that this is a new branch on the evolutionary tree an
expedition is soon mounted and together with the Silver Turtle flying boat, they use a larger version called Pelican Queen, and soon they are flying off to a remote island, but the earlier dark deeds will soon find their way to the same place and the race will be on to discover the truth and then preserve an ancient civilisation.

I was amazed at the speed of which Fardell moves his action along, yet still manages to combine information and character development. Throw in plenty of thumbnail sketches, a couple of maps and even a brief evolutionary tree and you have lots going on in this slim volume. Although this is the third volume to include these characters, this was the forst time that I had read about them, and I can confirm that you don't need to have read their previous adventures to enjoy this trip through the rainforests and caverns of a remote Malaysian island.