An engrossing account of imperial adventures in early 19th-century West Africa and the quest for fabled Timbuktu (coveted by Europeans as a source of gold). Kryza retraces the usually disastrous expeditions, often military, of Hugh Clapperton, Mungo Park, and Major Alexander Gordon Laing and others today largely forgotten, combining historical research with his own travels in the region.  (WAF88, $14.95)