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Searching... Bayport Public Library | FICTION SMITH | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"Fascinating...Stunning...Seduction and betrayal. Politics and treachery. Wilbur Smith's THE GOLDEN FOX combines these elements and more with the beauty and violence of the African continent.... Compelling." THE FREE LANCE-STAR (Fredericksburg, VA) The Courtney family blood has long run hot--as hot as the passion and turmoil boiling in war-torn South Africa. When one of their own succumbs to the worst kind of evil, those ties are put to the ultimate test. Isabella Courtney, dazzling daughter of South Africa's ambassador to England, is passionately obsessed with Ramon, the Marques de Santiago y Machado--also known as the Golden Fox, one of the world's most ruthless terrorists. When she secretly bears his child, Ramon kidnaps the boy and persuades powerful, yet reluctant, Isabella to betray South Africa and her beloved family...until the truth at last comes out, and the explosive Courtneys rally to her side and strike back with a raging vengance....
Author Notes
Novelist Wilbur Smith was born in Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia on January 9, 1933. He graduated from Rhodes University.
He has writen more than 20 novels, which have been translated into 26 different languages. The Dark Side of the Sun, Wild Justice, and Shout at the Devil have all been adapted as films. Smith says that Africa is his major inspiration, and currently he has over 30 novels published. Many of his books have become bestsellers, including Predator, the third book in the Hector Cross series. Other recent bestsellers include Pharoah, War Cry, Courtney's War, and his first memoir, On Leopard Rock.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
YA-- Smith's newest novel about the Courtney family centers around Isabella, the only daughter of Shasa Courtney, South Africa's ambassador to England. Ramon de Santiago y Machado, secretly known as El Zoro Dorado or the Golden Fox, concocts an elaborate plan to seduce Isabella, impregnate her, and then use the child as a pawn to further terrorist plots against South Africa. She gives birth to a son, Nicholas, whom Ramon kidnaps when he is one month old, setting in motion Isabella's betrayal of her beloved family and country. Smith excels at creating finely drawn characters; descriptive settings in London, Europe, and Africa; and a masterful development of an action-packed thriller that gets better as each new predicament unfolds. Expertly written, this novel engulfs readers until the very last page. --Nancy Bard, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA- (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Smith's ( A Time to Die ) 22nd novel, already a bestseller in England, adds to his reputation as a writer of suspenseful, knowledgeable thrillers. Isabella Courtney is the only daughter of a wealthy, influential South African family. Ramon de Santiago y Machado is the calculating, cold-blooded villain who skillfully pursues, seduces and impregnates her, then uses the child as a pawn to force her to participate in his cause: a violent revolution against capitalism. In desperation, Isabella is forced to seek help from her family, and it is here that Smith's skill in building tension shifts into high gear. The final chapters are fast-paced and action-filled, augmenting the effects of realistic settings and exemplary prose throughout. Though Smith sometimes focuses too long on unnecessary detail, this is an entertaining novel by a gifted, intelligent raconteur. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
South African-adventure writer Smith continues his saga of the Courtney family (When the Lion Feeds, The Sound of Thunder, A Sparrow Falls), now taking the superrich Courtneys into the 70's and pitting them against the Cubans who have moved into nearby Angola. In a reversal of the usual honey trap, the bait is an exceptionally handsome and long-lasting man, Ramon, the Marques de Santiago y Machado, and the target is young, pleasure-mad Isabella Courtney. Machado, cousin and loyal follower of Fidel Castro, is also a KGB officer who has honed his seduction and satisfaction skills on the highestborn ladies of the corrupt Western world. Young Isabella is therefore no match for him when he picks her up at a Rolling Stones concert in Hyde Park. She's nuts for him. And after he switches her birth-control pills for aspirin, she's perfectly happy to have his baby. After all, he has promised to marry her as soon as he sheds his first wife back in Cuba. But the first wife is as big a fake as Ramon's promises. It's all a plot to get control of Isabella so she will spy on her family's military-industrial activities--as well as on anything else that looks interesting in the highest South African political circles. The baby is whisked away by the evil Cubans, and the unmarried Isabella begins to do the bidding of the KGB. But neither the KGB nor the Marques have figured on the fierceness of Isabella's fighting family and all their corporate airplanes. Smith is much more comfortable and clever with big-game hunting and battle scenes than he is with politics and social observations--which here read a bit like Danielle Steel in Cape Town. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
