Wingshooters Product Review

The Lion Killer - A novel by Jim Woods

Lucas Mellor is a Texan who has been on numerous African safaris.  He's good enough to become a professional hunter, but the South African political climate will not allow it.  While on safari with an outfitter that he has become friends with, Mellor is offered the chance to become a hit man for a South African white supremacist secret society called the Vengeurs.

Mellor accepts the job, and is directed to visit a member of the society in rural Georgia where a special rifle will be fabricated for him.  The designing of the weapon is described in exquisite detail, as is the construction of a unique double-bladed stealth knife.  Engineers and weapons enthusiasts alike will be fascinated by the in-depth descriptions of how these weapons are created.  The knowledge of weapons design, metals, and engineering shown by Woods is nothing short of amazing. 

When the weapons are finished, the friendship between Mellor and outfitter Danie Schwardt transforms into a relationship of mistrust and duplicity as Mellor is given his first assignment.  Balking Schwardt on some of the details of the hit, Mellor executes his job with remarkable precision, proving himself to be well-chosen as the assassin of the society.  Mistrust soon leads to double crosses as friends become enemies and the action moves through the plains of Africa and into the cities of Johannesburg, Durban, and Port Elizabeth. 

My biggest complaint with this book is that there's just not enough of it!  I carried it with me on my own deer and duck hunts, sometimes forgetting to take time to look around me for game as I raced through the pages.  I dream of Africa and my own yet to be taken safari, and this book took me there in a way that no other has.  It's the first fictional work I've read based around safari, and I can only hope that Woods takes me there again in another future book.