Jenkins, Geoffrey A Bridge of Magpies

Cold War era, improbable claptrap set circa 1970 in the waters off South West Africa. The plot focuses on efforts to locate a World War 2 U-boat that resurfaces mysteriously every few years before sinking once again in the frigid waters of the South Atlantic. The submarine carried a cargo that several competing groups of contemporary “salvagers” are trying to locate – a hocus pocus Nostradamus-like ancient Japanese text that can predict and lead the Japanese (or whoever owns the document) to naval victories. Don’t ask how such a priceless document got aboard the U-boat! Jenkins’ plot includes a major role for the liner CITY OF BARDODA (Ellerman’s Line, built in 1918) which in real-life was a World War 2 casualty, though certainly not in the baroque manner of Jenkins’ fevered imagination. This one is really only for the true afficionado of pulp fiction.