Submitted by Jenny Carter
Golden Lion, by Wilbur Smith
THIS is a swashbuckling page-turner of a novel. I have not read any of Wilbur Smith’s books for some years, thinking that his earlier works were his best.
That may well be, however I found it hard to put this exciting story of adventure down.
The youthful Henry ‘Hal’ Courtney is a successful master of his own ship, the “Golden Bough”, in the reign of Charles II. The war between the English and the Dutch is temporally on hold through an uneasy truce, though this has not stopped the odd skirmish when an unscrupulous captain scents an opportunity for gain.
The “Golden Bough” is running down the east coast of Africa, which for centuries has been home to pirates, vagabonds and slave traders. Aboard is the beautiful Ethiopian Judith Nazet, a warrior in her own right and Hal Courtney’s lover.
Hal’s ultimate object is to retrieve the Courtney family’s stash of treasure which has been secreted for years up a little known lagoon near the Cape at the base of the African continent, and then return with it to his ancestral home in England.
Trouble soon strikes when the “Golden Bough” is boarded and the crew must fight hand-to-hand to defend the ship and their lives.
Worse is to come when Hal discovers his ruthless and mortal enemy, known as “The Buzzard”, still lives after having been badly burned in a fire which sent his ship to the bottom.
A series of unavoidable events lead Hal to Zanzibar which is run by Omani Arabs, no friends of his as he was previously at war with their ships in the Red Sea.
It is also home to “The Buzzard”, now a grotesque figure, and who is hell bent on revenge on Hal, and on purloining the Courtney treasure.
Hal, and separately Judith, are betrayed, captured, and end up in the seedy Zanzibar slave markets, neither knowing the fate of the other.
Shackles, tiger sharks, and perilous journeys inland as part of a slave chain gang have never stopped Hal Courtney, and close by, hidden from his enemies’ eyes, are the loyal members of his crew ready to help him attempt to outwit his scheming nemesis, and rescue Judith, if they can.
An action packed, at times bloody and incredible, but thrilling tale which kept this reader engrossed to the end.
