The setting is contemporaneous with publication: the beginning of the twentieth century. Crawfurd grows up in Kirkcaple, by the North Sea, where he first encounters the antagonist, Laputa, performing a ritual on the beach. Crawfurd's father dies, and he goes to work as a shopkeeper in a place called Blaauwildebeestefontein. Crawfurd comes into contact with a Portuguese man, Henriques, and again with Laputa, and he gradually learns of illegal diamond smuggling and of a planned rising of the native people of the region, ...
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The setting is contemporaneous with publication: the beginning of the twentieth century. Crawfurd grows up in Kirkcaple, by the North Sea, where he first encounters the antagonist, Laputa, performing a ritual on the beach. Crawfurd's father dies, and he goes to work as a shopkeeper in a place called Blaauwildebeestefontein. Crawfurd comes into contact with a Portuguese man, Henriques, and again with Laputa, and he gradually learns of illegal diamond smuggling and of a planned rising of the native people of the region, including the Zulu people and the Swazi people, led by Laputa.
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I first read this book 65 years ago, I have enjoyed it as much now as then.
BuchanFan
Oct 13, 2007
Very Exciting, couldn't put it down
When I started reading this book, I could not put it down. It was so exciting, I read late into the night, and finished it in two days. When you start reading you will be interested in what will happen next, especially when the hero gets into the most enourmous problems. You just have to keep reading to see how he escapes, and what happens in the end. This book will please everyone! It is well written, entertaining, but is more than just a thriller. There is meaning to it, and the character is one with whom we can relate, not a super-hero like person who never gets tired, fails, or loses.