Frederick Forsyth · 1974 · thriller

Frederick Forsyth's 1974 thriller. When a British tycoon learns that a mountain in the tiny West African republic of Zangaro holds a fortune in platinum, he hires the mercenary Cat Shannon to topple its dictator. Shannon scouts the capital, Clarence, then assembles men and arms across Europe, ships them down the Atlantic by way of Sierra Leone, and lands at night to storm the palace.

1. 1
   London

   In London the mining tycoon Sir James Manson, having learned that a Zangaran mountain is a fortune in platinum, quietly hires the mercenary Cat Shannon to overthrow the country's paranoid dictator and install a puppet.

2. 2
   Zangaro

   Posing as a tourist, Shannon reconnoitres the squalid capital, Clarence, and sees that toppling President Kimba means one thing: a small force landing from the sea to storm the palace where his army and treasury are kept.

3. 3
   The Adriatic

   Across Europe Shannon recruits his old comrades and buys guns, boats and papers through a web of dealers and smugglers, loading the arms aboard the freighter Toscana on the Yugoslav coast for the long run south.

4. 4
   Sierra Leone

   The Toscana slips down the Atlantic and pauses off Sierra Leone to take on a handful of African fighters and a doctor, the last piece of the private army now steaming for Zangaro.

5. 5
   Clarence

   At dawn the mercenaries land near Clarence and storm the presidential palace with mortars and bazookas - and Shannon, dying of cancer, ensures the coup installs not the tycoon's puppet but a fairer man.