The Gunrunners

1904, Southern Africa. The great European powers are ruthlessly pursuing their goal to build an empire – but the local tribes are restless.

And in Peter Vollmer’s historical adventure, The Gunrunners there are plenty of corrupt government officials and businessmen among the colonists only too ready to line their pockets by supplying the weaponry sought by the rebellious tribesmen.

Werner von Dewitz, a young German officer in the army of Kaiser Wilhelm II, arrives in the continent assigned the task of infiltrating a gunrunning operation that is causing political turmoil when it crosses borders between German and Portuguese regions.

In particular, the guns are being sold to the Herero, one of the dominant native tribes revolting against the imperialism that oppresses them.

Fluent in several languages, Dewitz masquerades as a Portuguese manufacturing representative, to secretly penetrate the Angolan gunrunners’ network while working with military officers and intelligence agents of the two countries in his relentless pursuit of the outlaws.

Posing as Joachim de Almeida, he sets up a deal with the repulsive and dangerous Antonio dos Santos whose beautiful mulatto wife Maria, quickly sees in the dashing von Dewitz a means of escape from her brute of a husband.

But von Dewitz has already stoked up a fledgling romance with mission-bound Dr Dorothea Eggers whom he met aboard ship on his way out and subsequently rescued when their train to the capital was attacked by rebels.

What unfolds is a perilous journey in which von Dewitz must endure fierce battles and a terrible infection that instigates yet another chance encounter with the lovely but initially less pliant passenger from the ship.

Can von Dewitz outwit the stop-at-nothing dos Santos who seems to know his every move?

And what lies in store for Maria and Dorothea who both play key roles in his quest?

Utterly realistic and thoroughly absorbing, The Gunrunners elegantly blends the distasteful realities of Europe’s colonial past with an upbeat, modern outlook on human relationships.

Praise for Peter Vollmer

‘Reads like a classic’ – Dr Wesley Britton, author of The Encyclopaedia of TV Spies

'Thrillers in lesser hands read like research reports. Vollmer knows the areas and locations of which he writes and this allows him to utilize those snippets and scratches to great effect.' - David Baclaski, Screenwriter, New York

'Vollmer has little time for poetic pleasantries, as his writing is tough and terse in a way that is reminiscent of Mickey Spillane, Ted Lewis, and other “hardboiled” thriller writers.'- Benjamin Welton, Writer & Lecturer, Boston University

Peter Vollmer is the grandson of German colonists who settled in the German colony of South West Africa in the late 19th century. After living and studying in Namibia, France and England, Peter returned to his native South Africa. He was involved in assisting then Rhodesia when it declared UDI and assisted in breaking the embargo set by the United Nations. His other novels include Diamonds Are but Stone, Per Fine Ounce and Left for Dead.