WEB OF CRIMES, an adventure novel by Tasmanian author Peter d’Plesse, reads a bit like Raiders of the Lost Ark if it had been written from the perspective of Indy’s pilot sidekick Jock (“Oh, that’s just my pet snake, Reggie!”). An experienced pilot and explorer with a passion for aviation, military history, and outdoor survival, d’Plesse brings a wealth of knowledge to this meticulously researched tale of aircraft, guns, and money.

A sequel to d’Plesse’s first novel, Fire Eye, WEB OF CRIMES sees the return of that novel’s protagonists, Alex Dulaine and Jed Mitchell. Fire Eye was a romantic adventure in the tradition of The African Queen and Romancing the Stone, with tough-but-feminine Alex and Jed, adventurer and aviation expert, falling for each other while hunting for a lost World War II aircraft and occasionally dodging bullets. WEB OF CRIMES picks up their story not long after the events of Fire Eye and reprises the first book’s formula, with the duo heading into the Australian and Tasmanian wilderness to investigate a mystery involving another WWII aircraft, the present-day story intercut with flashbacks to the 1940s. This time around, d’Plesse broadens his canvas to include such far-flung regions as North Africa and Iraq, and villains—the wealthy Maas family and Malcolm Prentice, their ruthless fixer—straight out of a Bond film. The novel’s busy, breathlessly paced plot quickly expands beyond the initial missing-aircraft mystery to include lost diamonds, mercenaries, and Islamic extremists. Along the way, readers will learn a great deal about WWII aviation history, firearms, and geopolitics, among other subjects.

WEB OF CRIMES improves significantly upon Fire Eye‘s often heavy-footed and awkward writing, with more naturalistic dialogue and a polished style that propels the story forward with confidence. However, like the previous novel, it suffers from an overabundance of passion for its subject matter, resulting in long passages of historical and technical explanations that unbalance the narrative. While the information is interesting in itself (“a bullet impact can make a hole a bit bigger than its calibre”), it’s too often inserted inelegantly into scenes, slamming the brakes on the story’s forward momentum. The novel’s perspective of its main characters is curiously focused on minute details while neglecting key establishing information; the text mentions repeatedly, for instance, that Jed is a school principal, but nothing is said about the school itself. To be fair, the characters’ backgrounds aren’t all that relevant to the plot, but the murkiness of the story’s larger context—who are these people when they’re not solving aviation mysteries, sipping fine wines, and composing haunting melodies on the piano?—becomes conspicuous by its absence.

WEB OF CRIMES offers a fast-paced and delightfully old-fashioned romp, packed with thrills and romance. While its research-heavy prose could prove overwhelming to readers who aren’t aviation enthusiasts, it is sure to be a treat for those who are.

~Edward Sung for IndieReader