NAKED IN THE RAIN

About the Book

Casey and Finnegan, two adventurous former newspapermen, are on a world yachting cruise but are stranded in Panama for lack of cash. Then they are hired by the mysterious Mister R. Johnson (his full name) to sail his classic wooden yacht to a buyer in Australia, 3,800 miles away.

Halfway through the voyage, Finnegan has a heart attack and Casey must nurse him and sail the boat alone to the Marquesas, 1,500 miles away.  When he gets there at last, he meets the sexy blonde Dagmar, a fellow sailor, but he doesn't get to spend much time with her. Turns out he's been made a patsy--he winds up in jail facing charges of smuggling in a million dollars' worth of heroin.

It's up to him to prove his innocence and he must do so by luring the freakish Johnson and his giant Samoan sidekick, Mono, to Papeete and the waiting French gendarmes. But the two gangsters kidnap Finnegan out of the hospital and manage to escape after fleeing by boat to Moorea.

Casey and Finnegan, reunited at last, start figuring how they might buy Johnson's boat and continue their journey once Finnegan has fully recovered. And Dagmar will sail with them -- but in her own boat. She's still the single-handed sailor.

About the Author

Jack Thompson was a teacher and a newspaper reporter, rewrite man, and editor. He built his own wooden boat and sailed it around the world. During his eight-year voyage, he lived in such places as the San Blas Islands of Panama, the Galapagos, the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Moorea -- all scenes of action in his novel Naked in the Rain. Currently he Is living on his boat, Turtle Dove. in Estepona, Spain. The 37-foot ketch is remarkably similar to Mockingbird, the classic yacht sailed by characters Casey and Finnegan in the novel. All characters in the book, both good and bad, are fictional.