Author Forsyth flies into real-world drama

Real life has ended up beating fiction for British author Frederick Forsyth, who jetted into Guinea-Bissau this week for book research.

Before he touched down, a bomb hidden under a staircase had blown apart the West African nation’s armed forces chief. Hours later, the country’s president was gunned down.

Forsyth, author of the novel 'Dogs of War' about an African coup famed for the accuracy of its detail, said that he did not go for “a coup d’etat or regime change, but that’s what I ran into.”

He said he heard the explosion that was the beginning of the end for the president and dined with the Dutch pathologist who conducted the president’s autopsy.

The author added that his sources told him soldiers bent on avenging their chief’s death shot the president four times and then “cut him to pieces with machetes.”