Krishna
We have reviewed many of Wilbur Smith’s books earlier here. See The Triumph of The Sun, Wild Justice or Assegai for a sample. The story, as is his wont, is the usual but the setting is different. There are no Courtneys or Ballantynes to contend with here, but what he starts here seems to have become the start of a new offshoot, as the main man and the woman appear in a sequel as well.
The story first.
Cayla the wicked daughter of doting billionaire mother Hazel Bannock – who inherits a crumbling business from her dead husband and revives it – brings aboard her ship an Islamic African terrorist Adam as a lover, thinking he is a Frenchman. She is 16 and deep into sex already. The man she brought aboard guides boats of terrorists and takes over the ship. The ship is destroyed and the girl kidnapped. Hazel enlists the help of his assistant Hector Cross in desperation.
Now if you have read enough books of Wilbur, you know he loves to bring in extreme gore, violence and sex in his books. Even to a reader as inured to his style as me, the torture of Cayla was a bit shocking to read. All this is done to promote Hazel and Hector into unthinking, rash action combined with impossible ransom demands. What they seek is revenge.
And true to form, Wilbur’s characters do not even grieve much. While in deep grief for her daughter and terror of her plight, Hazel finds time to seduce and skinny dip with Hector and do a whole pile of other things.
Tareeq and Uthman, two “natives” in Hector’s employ (another staple of Wilbur to show that even though a white man is always in charge, he is benevolent to the natives) find out the whereabouts of Cayla’s abductors (Puntland) but Tareeq warns Hector of treachery from Uthman. Tareeq goes as a spy to a nearby village where his aunt lives.
When they get to rescue Cayla, Uthman’s treachery brings death to the waiting crew and they are pursued by dogs, hunters and are on the run. They meet and kill the Sheikh, who is Adam’s grandfather and now Adam controls the gang.
They are pursued closely by Uthman and Adam and their attempt to escape by boat is disappointed when with all their allies the rescue boat is sunk. In desperation, they run and get a bus to ride through. Adam and Uthman find them and surround them on a cliffside and at the last minute, Hector’s friends comes and rescues them via a cavalcade of jeeps and then airlifts them back to South Africa.
Hector is invited to join Hazel at the headquarters in London. Cayla is deeply psychologically affected by the whole ordeal. They all have fun time while Cayla recovers – fairly easily it would seem – until they go back and find Tariq’s wife and son have been killed by Uthman now.
Hector pops the question to Hazel and meets her mother. Then they discover that when they were away on their honeymoon, Cayla and Hazel’s mother Grace were beheaded.
So they mount a counterattack, where the world’s largest oil tanker is deliberately taken near the coast of Sudan, tempting Adam. What Adam does not suspect is that the ship is altered and inside the hull is a full attack force, ready to deploy at the slightest chance. The trick is to let the ship be “captured” by Kemal, Adam’s uncle, so that Adam will visit the captured ship and then attack. Kemal captures the ship but when he tries to get his men to serially rape Natasya, a commando double for Hazel, he gets his finger bitten off, his men killed and they retreat, locking her into the room.
Adam and Uthman come in, and Uthman discovers the treachery, fleeing before he could be stopped, leaving Adam on the deck. Hector goes after him. It all ends predictably well.
There is gore but it is kind of underdone. Not like Wilbur Smith’s usual amped up violence. Yes, sure, there are tiger sharks tearing off a man, there is foot shattered by bullets, there is gang rape etc but then for Wilbur’s usual gore where he seems to describe agony with great relish, this is surely underdone. The main villain, Adam Tippo Tip (yes, I know, his name sounds like something you will see in a cartoon of the 1960s and also I know there are references to this name in some of his earlier books) is supposed to be given a suitable death and you expect something truly horrifying, knowing what Wilbur would write in such a situation. But what really happens is almost tame.
The thrill is there, the style is there, the story is there and so let us say 6/10
– – Krishna