Book Review: Vicious Circle by Wilbur Smith

I decided to clear out some books and give them to charity, the first book that went was Vicious Circle and I did so without a moment's thought because it is perhaps the worst novel I have ever read. To make it clear I liked the previous novel by Smith (Those in Peril) to which this is a follow up. However this is a novel which seems to ply in some of the most ludicrous characterisation you will ever find any where, the main bad guy is the son of a Nazi war criminal so you left in no doubt that he will turn out to be a bad one and he starts to sexually molest his young half sister pretty soon as we are introduced to him.  Once he is sent to prison he becomes a partner with (in more than one way) a large African-American crimelord and when the two of them break out of prison and commit numerous crimes including the feeding of the half sister and mother to crocodiles which is filmed and watched by the evil pair in their African hideout. Now the politically correct will probably find this offensive in so many ways however I find it so in the sole count it is clumsily constructed. The plot is resolved with an assault on the hideout with our hero serving the bad guy a taste of his own medicine. You do wonder if Smith made the villain so despicable as to justify the brutal violence that is dished out by both sides. Yes Smith in his previous novels tended to deal with absolute black and white situations, but not such in a ham fisted way. Smith is now co-writing his novels and you do have to wonder what was behind the move soon after the publication of his worst novel in his long career.