4 out of 4 stars
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Skills of the Warramunga is a well written, informative, interesting suspense novel by Greg Kater. It’s the third in the trilogy but can be read just fine on its own.
Two war buddies, Jamie Munro and Jack O’Brien, are called from Australia to the jungle of Malaya to track and rescue a kidnapped British officer, Colonel Johnny Cook. Johnny had been their boss in Cairo during World War II; now they will be back together – if they can find him. Jack, nicknamed Jacko, takes his younger half-sister Sarah with him as she is an excellent tracker, an Australian Aborigine used to tracking in the Aussie bush, but able to transfer her skills to the jungle. Once they’re all in Malaya, they discover there are plots afoot to disrupt a planned change of government. A combined contingent of German and Japanese hiding out after the war’s end wants control, the native Malayans want independence, and the Communist party is courting the natives to rule the country themselves.
All these different groups bring their best fighters with unique-to-their-own-group skills to bear in the many conflicts. Kidnapping, murder, interminable jungle treks for the kidnapped and searchers all play into the suspense. Add in professional jealousies, a couple of mysteries, politics, and some sweet romance and you’ve got a story that should appeal to a larger audience than only lovers of history and war stories.
Wonderfully differentiated characters, evocative settings, and suspense all interweave with historical events to make you want to keep reading. The word choice and the character interactions enhanced the setting by making the time period clear. I felt lost at the beginning because of the military acronyms, organizations, and ranks. The author did a good job of seamlessly fitting in the information throughout, but I still wasn’t always sure exactly what the position of specific persons entailed. That’s just my unfamiliarity with them, looking up a few things helped. It didn’t cause me too much trouble and I followed the story pretty well.
Something I disliked is Sarah’s description. Though she is hailed as a remarkable tracker, respected and almost held in awe, the author has her giggling like a three-year old throughout the story. Even after she and her brother kill several dangerous bandits, her high pitched giggling while being sure they’re dead makes Sarah come across as a psychopathic child, very off-putting. Then there was the phrase ‘nip it in the bud’, overused to the point of abuse, though this may have been deliberate.
Everything else was perfect. It’s written with British spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and appears professionally edited. The author takes us to vivid settings in the jungle, limestone caves, tea plantations, and harbors in this peninsula of the South China Sea, under high-stakes conditions with realistic characters. I enjoyed it greatly, recommend it, and happily rate this 4 out of 4 stars.
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Skills of the Warramunga
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