Winston Churchill and the Treasure of Mapungubwe Hill

Angus (London Underground) offers an ill-conceived homage to the “Dark Continent” yarns of a century ago with this adventure tale featuring the young Winston Churchill. In 1899, the future prime minister, while reporting on the Boer war, is captured by Afrikaner forces. Chafing at captivity, he leaps on Boer leader Louis Botha’s offer: accompany Botha’s alluring agent Zeila and avaricious British ally Lord Sterne to the recently discovered labyrinth of tombs and palaces at imposing Mapungubwe Hill. In addition to precious gold, the complex contains new evidence of contact between ancient Rome and Nubia. The expedition proves but the first move in a long, deadly game between Churchill and Sterne that only ends following WWII. Angus’s elaborate plotting fails to distract, unfortunately, from the characters’ period-appropriate but discomfiting racial attitudes. At the end of the day, this genre homage reads more like a Dan Brown pastiche of H. Rider Haggard than the real thing. Agent: Peter Riva, International Transactions. (Sept.)