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ASSEGAI ... 

In 1913 Leon Courtney, an ex-soldier turned professional hunter in British East Africa, guides rich and powerful men from America and Europe on big game safaris in the territories of the Masai tribe. Leon has developed a special relationship with the Masai.

One of Leon's clients is Count Otto Von Meerbach, a German industrialist whose company builds aircraft and vehicles for the Kaiser's burgeoning army. Leon is recruited by his uncle Penrod Ballantyne (from The Triumph of the Sun) who is commander of the British forces in East Africa to gather information from Von Meerbach. Instead Leon falls desperately in love with Von Meerbach's beautiful and enigmatic mistress, Eva Von Wellberg.

Just prior to the outbreak of World War I Leon stumbles on a plot by Count Von Meerbach to raise a rebellion against Britain on the side of Germany amongst the disenchanted survivors of the Boer War in South Africa. He finds himself left alone to frustrate Von Meerbach's design. Then Eva Von Wellberg returns to Africa with her master and Leon finds out who and what she really is behind the mask...

about the autor:

Wilbur Addison Smith (born January 9, 1933 in Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia, now Kabwe, Zambia) is a best-selling novelist.

As a baby, he was sick with cerebral malaria for ten days, but made a full recovery. He grew up on a cattle ranch and spent his childhood hunting and hiking. His mother gave him novels of escape and excitement, which piqued his interest in fiction; however, his father dissuaded him from pursuing writing.

After education at Cordwalles Preparatory School, Michaelhouse in Natal and Rhodes University, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, he became a journalist, writing about social conditions in South Africa, but his father's advice to "Get a real job" prompted him to resentfully become a tax accountant.

He published his first novel, When the Lion Feeds, in 1964, written while he worked for Salisbury Inland Revenue. The book gained a film deal and its success encouraged him to become a full-time writer. His publisher and later agent, Charles Pick, gave him advice he never forgot: "Write for yourself, and write about what you know best."

He married and had two children after he qualified as a chartered accountant. The marriage ended in divorce at the age of twenty four. He married again following the publication of his first novel, this too ended in divorce. He married Danielle Thomas in 1971, dedicating his books to her until her death in 1999. He married Mokhiniso Rakhimova, from Tadjikistan, in May 2000.

He states that Africa is his major inspiration, and currently he has over 30 novels published. Smith now lives in London, but avows an abiding concern for the peoples and wildlife of his native continent.

In 2002, Wilbur Smith was granted the Inaugural Sport Shooting Ambassador Award by the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities