Overview
Wilbur Smith has won acclaim worldwide as the master of the historical novel. Now, in Assegai he takes readers on an unforgettable African adventure set against the gathering clouds of war.
It is 1913 and Leon Courtney, an ex-soldier turned professional hunter in British East Africa, guides the rich and powerful from America and Europe on big-game safaris. Leon had never sought fame, but an expedition alongside U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt has made him one of the most sought-after hunters on the continent. Soon, he finds that with celebrity comes not just wealth—but also danger.
Leon is recruited by his uncle Penrod Ballantyne, commander of the British forces in East Africa, to gather information on one of his clients: Count Otto von Meerbach, a German industrialist whose company builds aircraft and vehicles for the Kaiser’s burgeoning army. While spying, Leon falls desperately in love with von Meerbach’s beautiful and enigmatic mistress, Eva von Wellberg.
On the eve of the World War, Leon stumbles on a plot by Count von Meerbach that could wipe out the British forces in Africa. He finds himself left alone to frustrate von Meerbach’s plan, and in grave peril as he learns more about the enigmatic Eva.
Set amidst the tensions that will spark a war across continents, Assegai delivers the fast-paced action and vivid history that has made Wilbur Smith an internationally bestselling author.
Synopsis
In this unforgettable adventure, set during the World War I era, Leon Courtney stumbles on a plot that could wipe out the British forces in Africa.
Publishers Weekly
Smith continues the saga of the Courtney family of Africa begun in 1964 with When the Lion Feeds. In this installment, Leon Courtney, ladies' man and former lieutenant in the King's African Rifles, becomes a professional big game hunter and safari guide in the years leading up to WWI. Among his clients are Kermit Roosevelt, son of President Teddy Roosevelt, and a spoiled German princess who is fond of the whip. The story really doesn't kick into gear until halfway through, on the eve of war, when Courtney's uncle, Brig. Gen. Penrod Ballantyne, commander of the British forces in East Africa, asks him to spy on his newest client, Count Otto von Meerbach, a German industrialist with a secret agenda. Courtney also begins an affair with Otto's mistress, Eva, who has a secret life of her own. Will Courtney defeat Otto's dastardly scheme and rescue Eva? Though the outcome is never in doubt, Smith manages to serve up adventure, history and melodrama in one thrilling package that will be eagerly devoured by series fans. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
In 1913, on the eve of World War I, covert operative Leon Courtney learns that Count Otto von Meerbach has hatched a plot to annihilate the British forces in Africa. To stymie the plan, this former second lieutenant slips easily into a new identity as a professional big game hunter. As the machinations and counter-machinations proceed, Courtney discovers that he has two enemies: Von Meerbach and his own heart. This fine British spy has fallen in love with his archenemy's mistress. A captivating historical thriller by the author of River God and Power of the Sword.Publishers Weekly
Smith continues the saga of the Courtney family of Africa begun in 1964 with When the Lion Feeds. In this installment, Leon Courtney, ladies' man and former lieutenant in the King's African Rifles, becomes a professional big game hunter and safari guide in the years leading up to WWI. Among his clients are Kermit Roosevelt, son of President Teddy Roosevelt, and a spoiled German princess who is fond of the whip. The story really doesn't kick into gear until halfway through, on the eve of war, when Courtney's uncle, Brig. Gen. Penrod Ballantyne, commander of the British forces in East Africa, asks him to spy on his newest client, Count Otto von Meerbach, a German industrialist with a secret agenda. Courtney also begins an affair with Otto's mistress, Eva, who has a secret life of her own. Will Courtney defeat Otto's dastardly scheme and rescue Eva? Though the outcome is never in doubt, Smith manages to serve up adventure, history and melodrama in one thrilling package that will be eagerly devoured by series fans. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
The world is on the brink of World War I in Smith's epic of the Dark Continent. Big-game hunter and British army reserve officer Leon Courtney (of the Courtney family, last depicted by Smith in The Triumph of the Sun) also spies for the British in this graphic, colorful, and vivid novel of intrigue, romance, and violence. In short, Smith is up to his usual exciting stuff. A brutish German nobleman, Count von Meerbach plans to incite hard-line Boers to rebel against England; Courtney tries to stop it and, along the way, falls in love with Meerbach's beautiful mistress, who is also more than she appears to be. Africa in 1913 was a cruel and often brutal land but one of exquisite beauty, and Smith describes it in great detail. He is deeply sympathetic to the native peoples and their dealings with Europeans. Although sometimes overly florid when it comes to the language of romance, Smith here delivers for fans of good, action-filled historical fiction. [See Prepub Alert, LJ1/09.]
—Robert Conroy
Kirkus Reviews
Smith (The Quest, 2007, etc.) delivers plenty of the usual high-pitched adventure and old-fashioned prose in his latest addition to the interminable Courtney family saga. The regressive hero carrying the day this go-round is Leon Courtney, a neophyte hunter in British East Africa grappling with politics, intrigue and the local fauna. Court-martialed in 1906 over a botched assault on a tribal war party, the 19-year-old second lieutenant resigns his commission to throw in with veteran elephant hunter Percy Phillips. Simultaneously, Courtney's uncle, Penrod Ballantyne, who commands local British forces, surreptitiously assigns his nephew to keep an eye on German settlers to the south. Much of the book's first half is occupied by yet another epic safari. This time, Courtney accompanies popular U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt and his discouraged son Kermit; Smith does his best work in describing the party's encounters with rampaging elephants and great-maned lions. Things slow down considerably in the second half, which finds Leon assigned to spy on Count Otto Von Meerbach, a German industrialist embroiled in a scheme to smuggle war funds via the titular airship. The action sequences are straightforward enough, but the hoary tales of the Courtneys are about as contemporary as an H. Rider Haggard novel, and it's hard to get past those pitfalls. The book's racist caricatures ("Some like chocolate-but I prefer vanilla," Von Meerbach sneers) and Courtney's stereotypically immodest conquests, among them an Irish widow, a murderous German princess and Von Meerbach's mistress, make James Bond look like a model of political correctness by comparison. Lions, hunters, dirigibles and wanton women don'tnecessarily mean something for everyone. $100,000 ad/promoBooklist
The highly popular historical novelist returns with another guaranteed best-seller. In the early 1900s, Second Lieutenant Leon Courtney decides to hang up his military career after a near-fatal mission in British East Africa (and a subsequent court-martial proceeding instigated by a vindictive superior office). He takes up big-game hunting, but that's only his cover: in reality, he is working as a spy, gathering intelligence for his uncle Penrod Ballantyne. Leon's target is Count Otto Von Meerbach, a German weapons manufacturer (the novel is set only a handful of years before World War I), but Leon doesn't count on falling in love with the target's seductive mistress, Eva. Can Leon foil Von Meerbach's plot to foment an African rebellion and, at the same time, protect the beautiful Eva? There is a reason Smith is a hugely popular writer of historical novels: his remarkable talent for re-creating historical periods and crafting characters we care about is virtually unmatched in the genre. Smith's novels of the Courtney and Ballantyne families (in 2005, he brought the two sagas together in The Triumph of the Sun) have been entertaining readers for nearly five decades, and if this novel is any indication, he is showing no signs of slowing down.— David Pitt
From the Publisher
“Best historical novelist: I say Wilbur Smith.” —Stephen King“Smith is a master.” —Publishers Weekly
“One of the world’s most popular adventure writers.” —The Washington Post Book World
“Smith is a captivating storyteller.” —The Orlando Sentinel
“A rare author who wields a razor-sharp sword of craftsmanship.” —Tulsa World
“Wilbur Smith is one of those benchmarks against whom others are compared” —The Times (UK)
“No one does adventure quite like Smith.” —Daily Mirror (UK)
“ ‘A thundering good’ read is virtually the only way of describing Wilbur Smith’s books” —The Irish Times
“The world’s leading adventure writer.” —The Daily Express (UK)