The Caravan to Vaccares (published in the year 1969) - Authored by Alistair Maclean - murder story set among the gypsies

Alistair MacLean is a Scottish writer who specialized in writing thrillers and crime stories. He was third son of a Scottish minister and joined the Royal Navy during the world war two. He was a senior torpedo operator at the height of his career. He was in the thick of the war theater during the world war and saw action on many fronts especially the arctic north. After retiring he started penning his novels based on the war he saw and many of them became best sellers. Maclean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987.
Another pot boiler from Alistair MacLean. The hero is Neil Bowman who investigates the mysterious disappearances involving the gypsies along with his friend Cecile Dubois. He is pretty smitten by Cecile and is on the verge of falling in love with her.
Soon the mysterious disappearances which continues is an head ache fort the local police. Bowman suspects that the gypsies are hiding something which is deadly. The entire clan of gypsies make an annual pilgrimage to the patron saint Sara in Provence, in the South of France. They make a hazardous journey through the iron curtain every year.



As Bowman starts his investigation he finds that the gypsies are funded by a Guise Stromme whose trail leads to Le Grand Duc de Croytor or Charles as he insists on calling himself. Bowman comes across two pretty English girls, Cecile Dubois and Lila. Lila becomes the girl friend of the duke. Le Grand Duc de Croytor is a folklorist and a gourmet who has a nose for all the fine things in life. He is described as a large man whose interest in food is commensurate his size. But Bowman feels his strength during a hand shake and wonders about the affable duke. He plans to write a book about the gypsies and their customs and thus frequent their haunts very often.
As the investigation proceeds Bowman finds himself drawn in to a cat and mouse game with the assailants. The game of treachery, kidnappings and murder unfolds in which nobody is what they seem to be. In the end the gypsies are out witted and the duke is found to Bowman's Boss. The pretty English girls marry the hero's which is a rare MacLean generosity. Usually MacLean finish off the pretty female leads and never culminates a romance. Thankfully this time he does for a lesser know book.
This book is to a large extent a typical MacLean book. A cynical doughty hero and pretty lasses and murderous villains and an amazing twist in the plot. But I feel very much for the portrayal of the gypsies and Asians in the book. They are treated as fanatical murderous rogues out to wreck western civilization. This treatment almost borders on racism and I feel this is a very wide spread complaint against MacLean, given that such tendencies are there in other books of his. Otherwise the action is sleek and the plot is well managed. This may not be Guns of Navarone or HMS Ulysses, but is still worth a look and read.