"Knocking off a bank or an armored truck is merely crude. Knocking off an entire republic has, I feel, a certain style." So says mining magnate Sir James Manson, a shadowy titan of London's financial district, who is scheming a coup d'état in the small West African dictatorship of Zangaro, where a secret source of platinum lies waiting to be exploited.

The man selected to plan and carry out the sack of Zangaro is Cat Shannon, a 33-year-old Anglo-Irishman from Nigeria. If the goal is clear, the means are not, for there are no up-to-date manuals on overthrowing governments by force. By the time he has set forth this sinister venture in all its ramifications, Frederick Forsyth has fashioned that manual and given us a classic of terror and enthrallment.