Assignment Find Cherry

Curt Stone #5: “Assignment: Find Cherry” by Jack Seward. The Far East Investigations is hired by the Monday Club to find relatives of a Shogun whose ship was sunk with almost two tons of gold aboard. There was supposedly a map and another group, called the Pure Nation Society, whose members wish to return to the old ways, want the gold to finance their rise to power. Curt Stone locates a surviving relative in Hawaii, a beautiful nightclub dancer named Cherry, and buys the map from her. But someone may be a spy in the Monday Club, working with the Pure Nation Society, as the enemy knows his every step. This was another nice plot, but the author’s writing remains a bit awkward. Sentences in Japanese, then repeated in English, slowing down the pace; plus, he tells a lot of the action instead of showing it, which would make for better reading. This was the final story in the series, and I don’t know why it was discontinued. The covers were typical men’s action scenes, with sexy women, and Curt Stone shown with a gun that he seldom carried. I guess guns were illegal in Japan, even for a private detective. A fun read, however.