Synopsis: Douglas grew up wondering about the relative no one would talk about, Uncle Russ. Living in a small town, working in a beer refinery left Douglas fantasizing about the exciting life his uncle must have lived before he was murdered in Singapore. Surprisingly, Doug receives a phone call from Edna, one of Russell's old friends; thus begins Doug's adventures in Morocco, Cairo, and Singapore to discover how Russ really died and what happened to a grape-size red diamond.
Review: This book was a lot of fun to read. In some ways it is a 'coming of age' tale, while in others it harkens back to a young Indiana Jones. Having visited the locals, the descriptions took me back to the winding alleyways and the mysterious, sometimes threatening natives. It's too bad that Benoit has abandoned adult books and is writing young adult/children's fiction. ( )

Took a while to get into, but turned out to be a good and very funny story. ( )

A fairly engaging read, with a cast of interesting side characters and locales making up for the rather dim protagonist. His style of relating the story contains some humor, which is his best quality, and he eventually figures some things out. His epiphany is rather trite, but perhaps appropriate for the sort of thinker he appears to be. ( )