With Real Toads: The Golden Damsel

I've recently discovered a wonderful writers' group at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads. The members of the group post challenges on a two-week revolving basis. Today's challenge from Ostensible Truth is to write something about the photo provided, with the focus on history, a legacy, something washed up, lost or left behind.
Within these fairly wide parameters I have chosen to write a review of an imaginary book written by an equally imaginary archaeologist on the subject of a beautiful golden face washed up on an island, then left behind after a tsunami destroyed the island. For this style, I thank Lisa Ricard Claro who provides us with Book Blurb Friday every week. I guess I'm still in book-blurb mode, although this "review" is twice as long as one of Lisa's book-jacket blurbs.

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I am also linking today to Weekend Writer's Retreat at Grandma's Goulash, which asks for a piece of original work. The words are mine, but not the photo. This is a fictional review of a non-existent book.

Photo prompt provided by O.T. @ I.G.W.R.T.

The

Golden

Damsel

by Harrick Hayes

Reviewed by Kay Davies

Hal knew he would dedicate his whole life to the search for The Golden Damsel. He knew she existed: his father had given him a photo taken after the first wave of the tsunami revealed her, before his private helicopter picked him up and the second wave hit.

The second wave had been so powerful it had smashed his father’s legs as he dangled from the ’copter’s cables. Then it had destroyed the island

Confined to a wheelchair, Harrick Hayes had written books about his experiences as an archaeologist and, at the same time, raised Hal to know everything he needed in order to find The Golden Damsel. He never mentioned her to anyone else, however, not in his books, his TV appearances, or his interviews. Most particularly, no mention was ever made of her in any movie based on the archaeologist’s works.

After a more than extensive education, which covered aspects of geography, archaeology, oceanography, meteorology, climatology, metallurgy, and innovative travel methods, Hal started his search at the spot in the Indian Ocean where the island used to be.

Opinions on its location had varied and, while the searches for it had been many and exhaustive, the island had never been found. Because it had been inhabited only by birds and marine life, all nations assumed it had been a floating island destroyed by the tremendous force of the tsunami. Hal’s father, however, had the exact coordinates of the island’s location at the time of The Golden Damsel’s discovery.

This latest book by Harrick Hayes tells how he accompanied his son on a specially-fitted expedition ship, complete with submersibles for one, two, three or more trained personnel. What they discovered on the sea floor at those precise coordinates will shock and surprise the world.

Joining his previous seven volumes on bookstore shelves next week, The Golden Damsel will thrill and delight all readers.