Ruark dramatizes action very effectively. The reader is made to feel a participant in everything from a Kenyan wedding reception to an elephant hunt to ritual torture and murder. The narration is straightforward and exciting which creates and sustains suspense. The dialogue seems plausible enough and the characters are just realistic enough to keep the reader's sympathy although they do tend toward extremes of villainy or heroism.

Ruark is an accomplished journalist who presents facts accurately and describes events with great skill. Using language sparely but graphically, he brings the landscape alive — in the wilderness, on the farms and in the city. He also manages to describe with great clarity what it means to live in a country beset by civil war.