Adios Madeira

About the Book

Cape Town 1954-A young convent scholar studies the violin. Later at music college there is a kidnap attempt. Foreigners lingering in the area are suspected. The young student is in the dark about the absence of her father, as her mother tells her nothing about him while she is growing up. Having obtained his postal address, she finds him up-country in Pretoria. Her tells her of his fighter-pilot years during the second world war, and subsequent hospitalization. She tries to rehabilitate him by buying land outside the city to farm. They are tailed by the scoundrels, and her father is finally forced by them, at gunpoint, to hand over the inheritance papers of a Madeiran sugar plantation. The young girl escapes, and runs right through the night to safety in Pretoria. She returns to Cape Town, and boards ship to sail to London and further violin studies. On board she meets and falls in love with a young doctor, whom she tells about a romance with her music teacher in Cape Town. She also tells of her intention to find out about matters in Madeira. She settles down in a musicians' residence in London. On a visit to Portobello Road, she is kidnapped and taken by fishing trawler to the beautiful Madeiran island. Here she finds that her abductors are mining for iron in the basalt land. Her new fiance, the doctor rescues her. The criminals are captured, tried and jailed. It appears that her father has also found his way to the island. He is persuaded by the doctor to spend some time in a hospital in Britain, and finally her mother agrees to come over from South Africa to he reunited with her long-lost love.

About the Author

Born in South Africa, Carey Maytham was educated at Star of the Sea convent school and the University of Cape Town, where she studied English, History and the violin. She lives in Cape Town with her husband, son and two cats, and enjoys music, reading and cooking. She is working on her next novel.