Customer Reviews

The Golden Pool: A Story of a Forgotten Mine

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After finding this book at a local bookstore, I decided to read it since no one else on amazon had as yet reviewed it. I guess most people have simply forgotten R. Austin Freeman except possibly for his Dr. Thorndyke mysteries. This novel begins with Robert Englefield, a young Englishman, taking on a job with a vessel sailing for northern Africa. Once there, Englefield is placed in the position of running the store through which the captain sells and trades his goods. As Englefield spends more and more time at this outpost on the African coast, he hears stories a legendary mine in the interior of Africa where the fetish priests capture unwary travelers and blind them to prevent escape. Purely out of curiousity, Englefield finally decides to go looking for this mine in spite of the obvious dangers presented to a white man traveling in the rural African interior. Once Englefield departs and inevitably runs into trouble, the story finally takes on some suspense and unpredictability. Freeman's knowledge of Africa is quite extensive, and through this cornicopia it's easy to see why this book was required reading by the British colonial services in Africa. Freeman clearly spent some time researching or traveling to find material for this book. Once I got through the first 150 or so pages, which are entirely too predictable and uneventful, the book finally managed to capture my interest through the resourcefullness and knowledge provided by Englefield's adventures. This is a great book for anyone interested in obtaining a first-hand perspective of an outsider traveling in Africa. I'll now definately be looking for other books by this oft forgotten author.