Review: Travel to South Africa with Deon Meyer for Latest Adventure!

"We [people] don't care about anyone else...I don't want to live like that. I want to hear people. I want to know people..." (p. 90)

Faced with just the slightest possibility that her brother, who was supposedly killed twenty years ago, is still alive, Emma LeRoux starts out to find him and enters a nightmare of danger in Blood Safari, the latest exciting thriller by Deon Meyer!

It was plain right from the start that there were many that did not want Le Roux searching for her brother. And when she is attacked, she hired a bodyguard--Lemmer. A loner, he was not interested in communicating, getting to know Emma or learn anything about her brother. In fact, his first Lemmer Law, one of many, was "Don't get Involved." Followed closely by the second, "Trust nobody." His job normally involved being far enough from the one he guarded that he could watch, continuously and without break, to do his job. But now he was driving, alone, with Emma, eating with her, and staying within close proximity, sometimes, quite close. It was to Lemmer that Emma said the above-quoted words--she needed to know Lemmer so that she could trust him.

Lemmer had worked for many Rich Afrikaners, so many that he had a Law just for them: "If a Rich Afrikaner can show off, he will." His new client was rich, but she had hired him. So he thought she was not willing to pay for the best--why give it his best.

But they traveled, heading for South Africa, and the Hoedspruit charge office to meet with Inspector Jack Phatudi, who was investigating the Khokhovela murders, assumed to be committed by Jacobus De Villiers. Emma LeRoux's brother's name was Jacobus Dawid LeRoux and when she had seen the picture of the assumed murderer, he had looked enough like her brother that she could not let it go--she had to make sure!

Police would not help her--but then could always be found either directly following them or nearby. As they investigated, the men with whom De Villiers had been in contact directly lied or withheld information, yet gave enough that led to further contacts. And then one of those men was murdered. Emma received messages that she should leave and not look for DeVilliers, but used her brother's name instead.

The search leads them through one adventure after another until, finally, they are uncovering what had actually happened with the Khokhovela murders, about what is behind the activities at game reserves, about the loss of many elephants by hunters of ivory, and how one man was now trying to make restitution for his past sins. Lemmer is no longer just a bodyguard, he must work through the lies, accusations, and information to actually learn what is happening!

Because Emma has been shot. And he just might be in love with her...

Deon Meyer has given us a great suspenseful adventure in Blood Safari. Michael Connelly declares on the front cover, "you can't go wrong" choosing this great novel. You can bet I agree with Connelly!

G. A. Bixler