Reviews

Compared to veteran author Wilbur Smith, who virtually created the perennially popular hairy-chested African adventure book, Tony Park is still a relative newcomer to the genre ... but catching up fast. As with his previous novels Zambezi and Far Horizon, the hero of Africa Sky is an Australian expatriate. The plot is simple and halfway plausible. Paul Bryant is a semi-alcoholic loner and deskbound pilot with a fear of flying, serving with an RAF training school in Rhodesia during the Second World War. A prominent WAAF officer is murdered, and Bryant comes under suspicion-any obvious frame-up, but why? With the help of a woman police officer he proves his innocence, conquers his fear of flying and foils a plot by South African extremists to turn Southern Africa into a Nazi state. Although the writing is occasionally clichéd and patchy, Park obviously loves Africa. The story has all the right ingredients: the hero is flawed but courageous, the women are sometimes as predatory as the wild animals, the baddies are really bad, and there is plenty of action. All in all, a good macho yarn that will also appeal to the ladies. Graeme Moore is a bookseller at Dymocks Melbourne