Desmond Bagley · 1963 · sea
Desmond Bagley's first novel, published in 1963. A boatbuilder in South Africa hears of Mussolini's lost treasure, buried in the Italian hills as his regime collapsed, and conceives a way to smuggle it out - cast as the keel of a yacht. From Cape Town to Tangier and the Ligurian coast, the plan runs headlong into the men who want the gold for themselves.
- 1Cape Town
In Cape Town the boatbuilder Peter Halloran meets a man who watched Mussolini's gold vanish into the Italian mountains in 1945 - and between them they conceive a way to bring it out: cast into a yacht's keel.
- 2Tangier
Sailing north, they make Tangier, the free port where anything can be bought and every deal is watched - and where their preparations draw the attention of a smuggler who has his own designs on the treasure.
- 3Rapallo
On the Italian coast at Rapallo they base themselves for the recovery, working inland to the hidden cache while old partisans, older enemies and a ruthless syndicate close in around a secret twenty years cold.
- 4The Ligurian Sea
With the gold poured into her keel, the yacht puts to sea off the Ligurian coast - low in the water, hunted, and carrying a fortune that will sink her if the weather or the men behind them get there first.