Kruger's Gold

KrugerS Gold: An Historical Novel Set In 1902 South Africa When Canadian Lt. Harry Lanyard British Army Leads A Mounted Patrol Of Hard-Bitten Colonial Troopers Into The Veld To Recover $15 Million Worth Of Gold Bullion Hidden By Transvaal President Paul Kruger During The Second Anglo-Boer War. To Succeed Lanyard Must Battle Tough Enemy Commandos Murderous Bandits And A Hidden Spy Sworn To Kill Him While Striving To Regain The Love Of His American-Boer Sweetheart Allied With A Ruthless Russian Secret Agent.. ReaderS Review By Renee CoxkrugerS Gold:A Novel Of The Anglo-Boer War By Sidney Allinson.Sidney AllinsonS Books Are Always Surprises. They Can Start Off Unassumingly And Build Up To Rip-Snorting Sagas Of Ceaseless Adventure. In His Finest Work Yet Allinson DoesnT Even Start Off Slowly. KrugerS Gold Grips The Reader At Once And The Pace Never Slows.As I Read This Action Tale Of The Now Little-Known Struggle A Century Ago Between South AfricaS Boers And England And Her \Colonials\ I Was Repeatedly Struck With The Idea This Would Be And Should Be A Wonderful Movie. AllinsonS Experience As A Television Producer May Have Given Him That Hot-Shot CameramanS \Eye\ Or It Could Simply Be That Any Good Yarn So Stirringly Told Lends Itself To Good Theatre.On These Pages An Historical Conflict That Was Soon Obscured By Two Ensuing Bloodier World Wars Leaps To Life. It Is Really The Twilight Of An Era With Europeans Jostling For Power And In This Case In Particular South African Gold. Allinson Fills In The Historical Perspective While Following A Canadian Soldier And His Colonial Troops Who Late In The War Have Been Assigned To Find And Recover The Legendary Government Cache Of Gold That Departing Prime Minister Paul Kruger Was Said To Have Stashed Before Leaving In 1900 For Exile In Europe.Allinson Writes Sympathetically Of The Brilliant Boer Commandos Fighting To Retain Their Homeland And Their Way Of Life. His Story Is Not Overly Revisionist: The Boers Had Seized This Land From The Native Tribes After All And Even The Most Principled Among Them Want To Keep The Blacks And \Coloureds\ In Their Place Lest Their Vast Numbers Overwhelm The White Settlers.Even Through Today’S More Politically-Correct Prism We Must Admire The Self -Reliance Of These Men Whose Guerrilla Tactics And Talented Marksmanship Enabled Them To Strike At The Enemy Melt Away Into The Bush And Return To Attack Another Day. Many If Not Most Of The Men Have Lost Wives And Children To The War; Yet While They Can Be Ruthless Both Sides Treat Surrendered Prisoners With A Decency And Respect That Arouses A Sense Of Nostalgia In The Reader. The Resolute British Do As Well With Enemy Prisoners While Fighting Hard For Final Victory And Suffering Epidemic Fatal Diseases.He Unblinkingly Describes The Concentration Camps Where Stranded Boer Civilian Families Were Placed To Wait Out The War. (Those Were Not \Concentration Camps\ In TodayS Nazi Sense Of Death-Camps. Rather The British Camps Were Set Up To Literally \Concentrate\ Boer Civilians Who Had Been Forced Off Their Farms.)However Allinson Paints A Grim Picture Of The Horrors Where Women And Children And Some Men Languished Under-Fed In Filthy Conditions And Rampant Deadly Diseases That Killed 1000S. A Few Selfless Medical Workers Do Their Best But There Are No Facilities And Their Supplies Are Woefully Inadequate. The Camps Were Not EnglandS Finest Legacy To History.No Less Than Four Romances In The Book Provide Lusty And Pleasing Counterpoints To The Wartime Setting. Even The Horses Get To Play A Heart-Warming Role. The AuthorS Thorough Grasp Of Military Affairs Cavalry Warfare And British Soldierly Details Adds To The Feeling Of Authenticity.Throughout Allinson Has Peppered The Story With Fascinating Historical Minutiae Such As The Boer Heroine Forbidden To Play Ragtime Music Because It Was Identified With Blacks.Read “Kruger’S Gold”. It Is A Treat. Renee Cox.