In Defense of the Old Man

About the Book

Frank Jakeson (Jake) is going to write the biography of  JM Rowley (The Old Man) who has died recently.  On JM’s flight to Australia, the man next to him died in his seat. During the flight JM thinks of his daughter Victoria who wants him to give up his control of Rowley Enterprises.  When JM takes a walk outside the Sydney Inter-Continental he is almost run over by a car.  Mary-Alice, a former hooker and now a masseuse, gives JM a massage. Victoria, now Mrs. Hammond, meets Ito Matusuma, representative of Matusuma-Nichi, a firm interested in acquiring the Rowley interests.  They become friends, a relationship that develops into an intimate affair.  She becomes pregnant.  JM, junior (Junior) discovers her secret and assists her in getting an abortion.  Ito proposes to his uncle, CEO of the company, that he use Victoria to get control of Rowley’s.  He discovers that the Old Man was the one who caused his father (the Colonel) to lose his mind.  Victoria and Ito plot to hurt Rowley’s business so that it can be taken over by Matusuma-Nichi. Victoria tries to promote revolt with her brothers.

The Old Man offers to hire Jake and Mary-Alice to body-guard him for 100 days, Jake signs the three up to join a Tauck tour. Police come in; the man who died in the seat next to JM on the plane was poisoned. At a barbecue and boomerang demonstration, JM’s leg  is hit by a sharpened boomerang. Jake calls Risedale in the US and hires him to investigate at that end.  A bus trip at night to see the fairy penguins.  JM goes back to the bus while the others watch on the beach.  On the way back Jake discovers that JM is not on the bus..  They find JM, badly injured on the beach.  Harry will arrange to have a security officer, John Doolittle, down to protect the Old Man. A gunman kills a porter, shoots Jake in the leg.  Doolittle gets the gunman.  A case of mistaken identity. Ito and Victoria’s plan to choke Rowley Enterprises is in operation.

During a walk near the Pristine River JM trips.  There is gunfire.  Doolittle, who was shadowing the group thinks he shot one of the attackers.  Mary-Alice and Jake fire at the two others.  One is killed; it is Patricia Woode, one of the tourists.  She and her husband Andrew were assigned to kill the Old Man. Another attack, by two swimmers, occurs while they are snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef.  Jake saves JM.

The Japanese are beginning to interfere with JM’s supply sources.  In Christ Church, New Zealand, Ito catches up with JM.  When JM refuses to consider a deal, Ito implies possible fires, insurance losses, and so on.  Harry says there has been sabotage both in the US and on the Pacific rim in Rowley stores.

A huge fire bursts out in the apartment below JM’s.  Jake discovers, by the style of the arson,  who the criminal is, from his experience in writing a book on gangsters.  He finds out that the orders were given for the fire in Tokyo.  Jake calls in all his cards from crooks in the Pacific area.  They will plant fireworks boxes in Matusuma-Nichi establishments, after advertising that they will be set off at a specific time.  The Japanese give in. Hammond and his son are exposed.  JM bumps Victoria, Michael, Arthur, and Junior from the firm.  Victoria pleads to speak to JM.  When the room is too hot, she opens the window to let cold air in, promising to return in a few minutes.  Then she keeps the others in conversation for two hours.  JM suffers chill and pneumonia.  On his dying bed he changes his will, leaving most to Harry and a foundation and making Jake and Mary-Alice rich.

About the Author

Murray Levine has written seven novels, attended NYU, Harvard, and Rutgers. He was a clothing manufacturer, a buyer and management executive in several department stores, an independent retailer, an advertising executive, an English professor, and is now retired to a community in Florida and is president of the homeowners association