Thriller Author Ian Kruger

Posts Tagged ‘Strike of the Black Mamba’

12 April 2010

US President Praises South Africa for Dismantling its Nuclear Weapons Program: But has it really been done?

As reported by News24.com on 12 April 2010, President Barack Obama commended South Africa on the 11th for voluntarily dismantling its nuclear weapons program when he convened with South African President Jacob Zuma on the eve of a key summit on nuclear terrorism in Washington. But how do we know that the South African nuclear weapons have really been dismantled? This is the question that South African Author Ian Kruger poses in his thriller novel Strike of the Black Mamba.

The novel opens with the ingenious theft of a shipment of nuclear material from a cargo ship destined for Japan’s nuclear power reactors off the Namibian coast by a mastermind criminal, Donald Morse. Morse is an American whose company used to supply the South African Government with arms during the apartheid years, in contravention of the UN arms embargo at the time. Morse was eventually apprehended and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. He later on escaped and fled to South Africa.

In the story, Morse knows that South African scientists developed really sophisticated nuclear weapons, and some of them stowed these weapons secretly away when the nuclear program was dismantled. Under the guise of a new Afrikaner right-wing movement, Morse proceeds to excavate the nuclear weapons and he has a chilling use for them which is only revealed at the climax of the novel.

Kruger mentions that the idea for the South African nuclear weapons came from a non-fiction book written by investigative journalists Peter Hounam and Steve McQuillan in 1995. The title of the book was The Mini-Nuke Conspiracy: Mandela’s Nuclear Nightmare and it proposed that apart from the six conventional atom bombs that the South Africans had built and showed to the world in 1993, they had secretly developed much more sophisticated nuclear weaponry, including mini nukes. They concluded that it is highly possible that these weapons of mass destruction might be secretly in the hands of right-wing elements in South Africa.

“The Mini-Nuke Conspiracy really set my creative juices flowing,” says Kruger, “and although my book, Strike of the Black Mamba, was first published in 2008, it is now even more relevant in lieu of three recent developments regarding South Africa. First is the praise given by the US President to South Africa regarding the dismantling of its nuclear weapons. Second is the recent racial tensions caused by Julius Malema, president of the ANC Youth League, stirring much trouble by singing the struggle song containing the words ’shoot the Boer or Farmer’, as well as the murder of right-wing extremist Eugene Terreblanche, leader of the AWB, on his farm last week. Third is the terror threats made by Al-Qaeda as reported in the media last week, when it said it might attack athletes at the Soccer World Cup Games in South Africa in June 2010.”

Kruger advises us to keep in mind that the plot of his thriller novel is only a piece of fiction. Or is it?

Strike of the Black Mamba can be found at most online retailers world-wide, such as Amazon, as well as Kalahari.net and Crink.co.za in South Africa. The book was published by CruGuru with the ISBNs 978-1-920265-13-7 and 978-1-920265-72-4. More information can be found on Ian Kruger’s website: www.iankruger.com.

A while ago, I was approached by a South African film company regarding the film rights of my thriller novel Strike of the Black Mamba. They said it was only an enquiry, and so I did not put too much hope in it.

Seeing that they have not contacted me again, I’m sure that it’s not going to happen (this time).

Feeling that the book will make a great action-packed, suspenseful thriller movie (I’m the author, I should know –   -no I’m only joking – but a few people have actually mentioned this to me), I would like to appeal to all hollywood (or other) filmmakers, movie directors or scriptwriters to take a look at the novel.

Well, one can only but hope!

“Strike of the Black Mamba” is available with free shipping from The Bookdepository. It is currently selling at $11.69 on their site. Please check out if they ship to your country before buying. They are shipping to about 90 countries free of charge, but unfortunately South Africa is not included in the list.

So, if you live in the US, Canada, the UK, nearly anywhere in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Andorra, Maldives, or wherever, and you have always wanted the book – now is your opportunity to go get it with free shipping!

It just seems they are not shipping to Africa, South America, Russia and Antartica … I wonder why?

Currently Tower.com is selling “Strike of the Black Mamba” at a discount (only $9.49). Please check their shipping rates first. You can find the book here: Tower Books.

As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post the paperback version of my thriller novel “Strike of the Black Mamba” (ISBN: 9781920265137) is now available at most online book retailers. Here are some of the sites where you can find the book:

USA: Amazon.com
UK: Amazon.co.uk
Canada: Amazon.ca
Australia: Booktopia.com.au
South Africa: Kalahari.net

These are just a few examples — there are many well known online book retailers that sell my book. Just go and search for it in your favorite store!

The paperback version of my thriller novel “Strike of the Black Mamba” will now also be published by CruGuru (ISBN: 9781920265137) and be made available at most online book retailers. It has already appeared at many of these websites, but some of the book’s information still needs to be updated by the retailers.

I will let you know where else you can find the book when the information has finally been updated…

My thriller novel “Strike of the Black Mamba” has now been published by CruGuru as an e-book in both PDF and Microsoft Reader formats. The ISBN for the PDF version is 9781920265342 and for the Microsoft Reader version is 9781920265359.

The novel is sold via most large online e-book retailers, such as Diesel eBooks, ereadable, Powell’s Books, BooksOnBoard, eBooks About Everything!, eChapterOne.com, etc.

The retail price is $6.99, but some of these sellers are selling it at a discount; I’ve seen prices as low as $5.59. If you are into e-books then please check it out!

I’m currently preparing an e-book version of my thriller novel “Strike of the Black Mamba”. It will be sold via most large online e-book retailers in about 2 months’ time and it will be available in both PDF and Microsoft Reader formats. I will keep you updated when it is ready.

I’ve been invited for a TV interview about my thriller novel “Strike of the Black Mamba” tomorrow morning (18 May 2008) between 07:30 and 09:00 South African time (about GMT + 2 hours) on SABC International. It is on The Weekender Show’s book slot. The station transmits to the U.S, most of the African continent, parts of Europe and Asia.

I’m quite thrilled about it and will let you know how it went!

The updated and hopefully improved version of the book video trailer for my thriller novel Strike of the Black Mamba is now finished and available on YouTube for viewing. I would love to hear your comments! Please leave a comment on my Blog or on YouTube.