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The Torch of Tangier

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Archeologist Dr. Drury entices dissertation candidate Lily Sampson to accompany him to a Tangier excavation of a Neanderthal site in the Cave of Hercules. She has been there for over a year and has seen it turn from an International zone into an area controlled by Spain. At present she cannot work because mud flooded the caves and the Spanish Governor denies the Americans access.

Dr. Drury confesses that he is OSS and had asked Lily to join his dig because she has skills that will prove useful to the Allies. Lily agrees to work for the American Legation on a top secret mission Operation Torch, the Ally landing of men to push out the Axis from North Africa. As she begins her assignment her mentor is killed and the key code box missing; Lily realizes that she must find it or Operation Torch will be compromised.

This exciting historical thriller gives the reader a first hand seat to the exotic North Africana region during 1942. Readers, like the heroine, are unsure who to trust as an ally today can be tomorrow's enemy. The protagonist is a strong-willed and courageous person who does her part to support the war effort, which means in her case being in danger at all times. Think Casablanca as Aileen G. Baron makes the past come vividly alive so that the audience will believe this is the beginning of a long friendship.

Harriet Klausner

Baron's second story about the young luckless American Archaeologist Lily Sampson has her trapped in Tangiers, unable to return home given the Atlantic dangers of the German submarines. Her work digging up Neanderthal artifacts now halted, she is recruited into the OSS to help with Operation Torch, the code name for the proposed landing of U.S. forces on the Atlantic Coast of Morocco. The allies have succeeded at El Alemien and the British are on the ground in the Western Desert planning to move against Rommel. For the population in Tangiers questions remain. Will Spain maintain her neutrality? Where exactly are the German U-boats? How nationalistic, and thus potentially dangerous, had the Berbers become? Spies also abound, and Baron manages to never let the reader know whom one really can trust. When murders occur, the sense of intrigue and suspicion becomes a murky reality for Lily whose life is at risk.

Baron does a solid job describing the Berber population, Moroccan coastline, colorful byways of Tangiers, and Gibraltar with its wartime activities occurring deep within the rock's tunnels. Lily's interest in Morocco's distant past enters the narrative with reference to the world of the Neanderthals, the Romans, Latinized Berbers, and Moslem sultanate established by Moulay Idriss. As Lily muses, while her reality is the past, and her present a "moving pinnacle of time," they were really all of a piece.

The Torch of Tangier, ISBN 9781615952632, Poisoned Pen Press, e-book version by Aileen G. Baron is most difficult to evaluate. The author knows, and has provided, the physical setting, the politics, and the elements of the time essential to her plot. However, her management of the characters provides a slight problem for this reader.
Lily Samson, a young archeologist who has several digs under her belt, arrives in Tangier ostensibly to assist Hammond Drury at some digs in the Caves of Hercules. The time is during WW II when Morocco is under Spanish and some Vichy French influence. Lily arrives, there is flooding in the dig site so, with a shift and ancillary appointment to the Legation, she gradually assumes duties other than those anticipated. With her additional knowledge of anthropology and a working knowledge of Spanish, French and Arabic, her job is to prepare pamphlets on the cultural history of the area - physical characteristics, social organization, kinship, etc. But she discovers that she is to perform still another job. Drury, who we gain the impression is OSS (not apparent until somewhat later), needs help is sending messages to an Allied landing party waiting to strike. He approaches Lily, who accepts the assignment.
Lily, in her various positions, becomes associated with a diverse group of characters and there seems to be a hint that each is involved in other than their apparent occupation. They include: Clark McAlistair and his constant companion, a Rif named Zaid who has a sinister position within the group, Tarzig, a Berber who appears at intervals, Armand Korian, a Legation employee who constantly is making unwanted advances to Lily, Quentin Boyle, the head officer of the Ligation, Major Adam Pardo, a late-arriving G2 Army Officer, Suzannah, a prostitute who also seems to be more than what she appears, and German spies, Berber ruffians and numerous other lesser characters.
With respect to the mechanics of this book, the setting, period in time and plot for an Allied invasion are most realistic, as stated, and the story moves along satisfactorily. The presentation and deployment of the characters is more difficult to accept. Their actions, no doubt in an effort to maintain an aura of danger and suspense, appear to be plot-driven in a mechanical way so the reader often is `attempting to catch-up'. For example: One has to assume that Drury is working for the OSS, and that McAlistar and Zaid, as well as Tarzig, also are involved, but more as adjuncts. Korian's position in the scheme of things never seems to be solidified. It also is difficult for a reader to identify Lily's character. She is difficult to picture as a person involved in the derring-do activities in which she becomes involved as is her rather rapid change of heart - she is desolate upon learning of the death of `the love of her life', but very quickly is able to transfer these feelings to a new Adam. And this establishment of the new relationship with Adam seems to be somewhat contrived. Zaid's activities at the conclusion of the story, with no previous hint, is difficult to accept, His ability to arrive back in Tripoli for the concluding activities similarly provides some strain in credibility.
To conclude, therefore, the author has demonstrated a knowledge of the physical requirements for the story and has provided a fast moving plot that is held back by inconsistencies in character development and interrelationships. However, if a reader does not find these factors too distracting, The Torch of Tangier probably will provide several hours of light entertainment. Reviewed by John H. Manhold, award winning fiction/non-fiction author.

This is a good beach read, when the lethargy of too much sun halts the crirical faculties. There are many holes in motivation, plot, and history. The author can't decide if Lily is Jackie Chan or Florence Nightingale, and when Lily does kill in self-defence ... it goes nowhere. Lily grieves for her Great Lost Love, Rafi (Ralph Landon), for about 5 minutes after learning he died a year earlier, and hastily acquires a new suitor about twice her age. But it's light fun, and zooms past in an hour or so.