Panther's Moon ~ Paperback ~ Victor Canning

Roger Quain has undertaken a strange task: he is transporting a pair of rare black panthers from Milan to Paris for his uncle, who runs a circus. The night before he leaves his hotel in Italy, Quain answers a knock at his door to find a beautiful young woman, Catherine Talbot, who has an even more extraordinary request. She is a British secret service agent, in possession of some microfilm containing precious deadly information. She needs to get the film out of Italy and back to Britain fast -- and the panthers might be the perfect disguise. But when their train is derailed as it crosses the Swiss Alps, the panthers -- and the microfilm -- go missing. The search in the wild mountain range attracts hunters from far and wide -- but whether they're hunting the panthers, or the microfilm, Quain and Catherine cannot tell ...and their enemies may be closer than they think.Author BiographyVictor Canning was primarily a writer of thrillers, and wrote his many books under the pseudonyms Julian Forest and Alan Gould. Among his immediate contemporaries were Eric Ambler, Alistair Maclean and Hammond Innes. Canning was a prolific writer throughout his career, which began young: he had sold several short stories by the age of nineteen and his first novel, Mr Finchley Discovers His England (1934) was published when he was twenty-three. Canning also wrote for children: his The Runaways trilogy was adapted for US children's television. Canning's later thrillers were darker and more complex than his earlier work and received great critical acclaim. The Rainbird Pattern was awarded the CWA Silver Dagger in 1973 and nominated for an Edgar award in 1974. In 1976 The Rainbird Pattern was transformed by Alfred Hitchcock into the comic film Family Plot, which was to be Hitchcock's last film. Several of Canning's other novels including Golden Salamander (1949) were also made into films during Canning's lifetime.