Book Review: Shadow Tracker

Shadow Tracker is a “high-energy story of high adventure and military action” according to the publishers blurb on the back cover. “Many of the events portrayed in this book are based on actual occurrences but were unknown to most of the world. Shadow Tracker exposes the reader to incredible adventures and shocking events that happened far away, but not so long ago.”

Bruce Dennill described it as a “full blooded adrenaline-charged thriller in the style of Wilbur Smith”, in The Citizen newspaper, a description that sticks, down to a few steamy sessions with the fille-du-jour.   

Central to Shadow Tracker is an American, Kurt Christianson, raised by his grandfather in Viking lore in Maine. As a result he is an expert hunter and fisherman and soon becomes a Green Beret in the US Army. With the book set in the 1970s, Christianson ends up in the Studies and Observation Group (SOG) a CIA-associated paramilitary operating in Laos, North Vietnam and Cambodia, so-called “denied areas” to the ordinary military.

Since his time in Laos is an introduction to the main narrative, it won`t spoil the plot to say that our hero has some Rambo-esque adventures in Laos and learns that some in the SOG command structure are selling operation plans to the North Vietnamese. The war over – for the Americans at least, Christianson returns home to find grandpa had been lost at sea and that some former comrades would like to pack him off to Valhalla too.

So our friend sets sail for Africa – literally – and ends up in the Congo where he joins a CIA operation to support Holden Roberto`s FNLA. A few eyebrow-raising adventures later, Christianson makes a short stop in South West Africa (as it then was) where he has an interaction with some Bushmen before leaving for a sojourn in Rhodesia – a visit that fills the majority of the remaining pages. Christianson joins the Rhodesian Light Infantry but covets a place in the Selous Scouts. A few successful missions later – and some promotion aside – he gets his wish and gets to play a key role in the war effort. The finer details we will leave to the reader…

Since novels are fiction, it is easy to suspend one`s credulity and accept this American`s otherwise amazing feats of endurance and military prowess. Other plotlines can also be swallowed whole, though some, such as that involving a medic, a Russian and the Bushmen require some chewing. But even there is some believability as the author had taken the time to explain the background and motivations of the characters.          

The reviewer can report that he certainly enjoyed the book and found it hard to put down from the start. The author certainly keeps his reader entertained from the start and that is the acme of any book. Well done Mr Nelson!

Keith A Nelson

Shadow Tracker

30 Degrees South Publishers

Johannesburg

2007