SHOUT AT THE DEVIL

Wilbur Smith writes concussive action stories (When the Lion Feeds; The Sound of Thunder, etc.) with South African backgrounds, until now modern. This one is loosely based on the sinking of the German raider Konigsberg (here called Blucher) during World War I, anchored in the Rufiji basin in East Africa. But most of the narrative proceeds like an elephant in musth on the trail of ivory poacher Flynn Patrick O'Flynn, his aide and son-in-law. Sebastian, and their perennial enemy, Herman Fleischer, the victim of their outrageous hoaxes and reprisals. Until the war breaks out and Fleischer, Military Commander, burns down their house and Sebastian's infant daughter. The vendetta continues and extends into an official incident of the war revolving around the Blucher and an attempt by the English to see that it does not get away. . . . Flynn O'Flynn's a congenial rogue and Shout roars right along at a tremendous pace--for postgraduate western readers.