Lee Falk, born Leon Harrison Gross (April 28, 1911 - March 13, 1999), was an American writer, theater director and producer, best known as the creator of the popular comic strips The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician. At the height of their popularity, these strips attracted over 100 million readers every day. Falk also wrote short stories, and he contributed to a series of pulp novels about The Phantom
This is the sixth volume in Avon's series of prose novels based on Lee Falk's iconic comic strip hero. This is one of the better ones; it was written by Falk himself, and is a pretty close adaptation of one of his story lines from the newspapers. Kit and Diana face overwhelming odds as they oppose a power-mad General to protect a new country. It's a pretty good story of suspense and international intrigue, rather than the usual fight against slavers and pirates.
The Phantom becomes involved in a coup in an African nation. When an evil general overthrows the rightfully elected president, the Phantom takes it upon himself to set things right. With the unstable politics in Africa at the time, this was a really good, logical Phantom story. So far the novels are doing a good job of mixing the stories up, rather than just having the Phantom fighting pirates all the time.