Quimby

A black teenager living in Detroit during the riots of the late '60s, Taylor Quimby went to Vietnam, trained in the Green Berets, became a member of the elite anti-terrorist Delta Force and then resigned to offer his services to the Zimbabwean Liberation Army. He stayed on after Rhodesia won its freedom, retired from active fighting until asked to help stop the rash of assassinations eliminating the leaders of the African National Congress, a group dedicated to the overthrow of the South African regime. Aided by a beautiful young dancer named Tandy, Quimby assembles a cadre of old fighting companions and sets a trap at an ANC meeting that results in the capture of white mercenaries from South Africa. Were the mercenaries hired by pro-Communist leaders of the ANC in an attempt to take control of the organization? Or are they members of a secret South African white-supremacist group? Filled with details about weapons and ammunition, softened by the romance between Quimby and Tandy, Adams's thriller is fairly formulaic in plot, but stands out from others in the genre for its view of current African urban life and politics. (February 23)