William Knox (1928 – 1999) was a Glasgow journalist, television broadcaster, and author. He began writing crime fiction in the 1950s and published over 50 books. He released his 24 books about Colin Thane and Phil Moss, Glasgow Crime Squad officers, between 1957 and 1999 under his name. Four more series were published under his name in the UK and pseudonyms in the U.S. The main characters in these other series are a varied lot: an auditor, an insurance claims investigator, a wildlife officer, and a U.N. field representative.

His six books about Talos Cord, the U.N. troubleshooter, were written between 1964 and 1973. They capitalized on the Cold War spy craze of the time, typified by the James Bond movies and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. television program. Cord is something of a globetrotter, traveling to a different country in each book. His second adventure is Lake of Fury (John Long, 1966), also published as The Iron Sanctuary (Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1968). As the book opens Cord flies to the village of El Wabir in Moyalla, a fictional country somewhere in East Africa. A colleague of his, sent earlier to investigate rumors of arms sales in the area, was killed in an air crash far too conveniently for Cord and his superiors to believe it was an accident.

Cord’s task is to follow up on the potential illicit weapons dealing and to learn what he can about the plane crash. He presents himself as an auditor for the agricultural arm of the U.N., a harmless and boring type. It gives him a great excuse to ask all sorts of questions and to request business records from everyone.

There is not much suspense here, as the villains are obvious early in the story and the ending is predictable. The action scenes are well choreographed though, and the African landscape is colorfully conveyed. The venomous snake set loose in a building at night so the watchman could sleep is an authentic but creepy touch. Overall, a well-written and briskly executed story with a plot line typical of the time in which it was written.