John Roper had been the master of a rather fine ship until his career was ended as the result of the blunderings and lies of a drunken mate. Roper has little chance of getting another command. He’s eating himself up with bitterness in Saigon. In desperation he accepts a post as mate on the Wanderer. Roper is starting to lose his moral compass. He wants to make a lot of money so he can buy his own ship and he no longer cares what he has to do to earn the money.
The Wanderer is an ageing rust-bucket commanded by Captain Murdock. Murdock reads the Bible a lot. He is also a bully and a sadist. He has an interesting method of choosing his officers - he picks men with weaknesses he can exploit. He derives extreme pleasure from making them squirm.
The Wanderer is bound for a small island near Indonesia, Kuma. The cargo is not strictly legal.
There are three women aboard the Wanderer and that will trigger all sorts of dramas.
One of the women is Murdock’s wife Kim. Kim refuses to allow Murdock to share her bed. It’s not that she objects to men (we will soon find out that there is a man aboard with whom she will happily share her bed) but she does object to Murdock.
The second woman is the Wanderer’s only paying passenger, Karen Gorman. Karen is on her way to Kuma to become the plaything of the man who runs the island, Da-chong. Karen is adamant that she’s only going there to be an entertainer but no-one could be innocent enough to believe that she will only be required to dance.
The third woman is a stowaway.
All three women will trigger rage in Murdock. Murdock hates women. He’s not actually a misogynist. He’s a misanthrope. He enjoys inflicting physical and psychological torture on both men and women.
Things will get more tense when they reach Kuma. Roper and Karen Gorman have of course fallen in love but they both think that there’s something more important than love - money. It’s not that they don’t have moral scruples, it’s just that they’ve convinced themselves that moral scruples are a luxury you can only afford when you have money. Roper thinks he can make enough money from the dishonest trading activities of the Wanderer to buy his own ship and then he can start worrying about thinks like honesty and decency again. Karen thinks she can make a lot of money in Kuma without becoming Da-chong’s whore and then go back to being virtuous again. They both really believe these things. Karen really doesn’t think that she’ll have to play the whore in Kuma, because she doesn’t want to think that.
Of course things will happen in Kuma that will cause them both to think again.
And there’s still the matter of Captain Murdock’s wife. There are rumours, but Roper doesn’t believe those rumours. He can’t afford to believe them.
Roper is a flawed hero. He’s basically a decent guy but he’s compromised himself badly and he’s not very proud of himself. Karen is a flawed heroine. She refuses to face the consequences of her actions. Having both a flawed hero and a flawed heroine is quite interesting.
Murdock is an out-and-out villain but he’s a colourful villain. He’s the sort of villain you love to hate. The other characters mostly have some complexity. The other offices on the Wanderer - Djeff, Appley and Fisher - have advanced quite a long way on the path to self-destruction but they each have a tragic awareness of that fact, and perhaps they can still draw back from the brink.
The climax comes with a storm at sea. The storm could have the effect of revealing an important secret on board the Wanderer, and various characters will have choices to make and there’s potential for lots of double-crosses and triple-crosses.
The plot is not dazzlingly original but with characters who are slightly more than just cardboard cutouts, and with the energy and zest that Clements puts into the storytelling, the result is more interesting than you might expect. And there’s some action and plenty of suspense. This is above-average pulp adventure fiction. Highly recommended.
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