Review: Mystery and Romance Interlocked
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 23, 2012
In Joanne Pence's novel, Dangerous Journey, C.J. Perkins, a twenty-eight year old Midwestern gal living in Los Angeles, who doesn't think she is particularly attractive, plunges headfirst into the disappearance of her brother, Alan, a Peace Core volunteer in Sarawak, a province of Malaysia.  Her quest lands her in Hong Kong, a British Crown Colony in 1978, where she shanghaies a handsome adventurer with a tragic past to help her, one Darius Kane.  C.J. learns her brother's whereabouts are tied up with the theft of the White Dragon, a small statue carved during the Chinese T'ang dynasty, a white jade masterpiece presented as a gift to the emperor of China and on loan to Western museums when stolen.  C.J. and Darius, who C.J. is more than a little attracted to, bounce from Hong Kong to San Francisco, to Singapore, to Sarawak, and back again.  On this dangerous journey they learn about each other's pasts and share intimate moments as they uncover clues to Alan's dilemma and to the mystery of the White Dragon.  This whirlwind of a novel locks the reader in, not only to the USA-Asian adventure ride, but also to a heart-felt man-woman relationship startling in its complexity