Massacre at Umtali

Soldier of Fortune #1

by Peter McCurtin

Vintage paperback

191 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Beauregard Shagnasty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frankly, I wasn't expecting much from this book and perhaps that is why I felt so pleasantly surprised. Not bad, not bad at all. I am going to investigate some more of these books from this series. Not high art, but perfectly acceptable adventure/war fiction.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair enough military adventure story that provides some interesting background on Rhodesia.

[Edwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in 1970s Rhodesia and telling the story of a mercenary named Rainey who has been engaged to lead a ragtag team of hired killers to capture a terrorist kingpin who recently massacred civilians in a village called Umtali. There is quite a bit of 1970s Rhodesia information and geopolitical discussion which was interesting until the point that it got boring. Fortunately the book escalated into high gear quickly and left no doubt that hardcore action was the emphasis of the book. Rainey is faced with a difficult dilemma at one point, which was a nice touch and added significantly to the story. An engaging and highly testosterone-fueled adventure that should appeal to readers of 1970s military action fiction.

[Gerold Whittaker]

Set in (then) Umtali, Rhodesia; I read it because I was born in Umtali. Other than the Prologue, not much by way of historical interest.