Travel to Klein Karoo...for...Recipes For Love and Murder by Sally Andrew

Isn't life funny? You know, how one thing leads to another in a way you just don't expect. That Sunday morning, I was in my kitchen stirring my apricot jam in the cast-iron pot. It was another dry summer's day in the Klein Karoo, and I was glad for the breeze coming in the window. "You smell lovely," I told the appelkooskonfyt. When I call it apricot "jam" it sounds like something in a jar from the Spar supermarket, but when it's confyt, you know it's made in a kitchen. My mother was Afrikaans and my father was English and the languages are mixed up inside me. I taste in Afrikaans and argue in English, but if I swear I go back to Afrikaans again.

The appelkooskonfyt was just coming right, getting thick and clear, when I heard the car. I added some apricot kernels and a stick of cinnamon to the jam; I did not know that the car was bringing the first ingredient in a recipe for love and murder.

But maybe life is like a river that can't be stopped, always winding toward or away from death and love. Back and forth. Still, even though life moves like that river, lots of people go their whole lives without swimming. I thought I was one of those people. The Karoo is one of the quietest places in South Africa, so you can hear an engine a long way off. I turned off the gas flame and put the lid on the pot. I still had time to wash my hands, take off my blue apron; check my hair in the mirror, and put out the kettle.

~~~

I put a tin of freshly baked beskuit on my desk. Jessie looked up from her computer and grinned at me and the rusk tin. "Tannie M," she said. Jessie Mostert was the young Gazette journalist. She was a coloured girl who got a scholarship to study at Grahamstown and then came back to work in her hometown. Her mother was a nurse at the Ladismith hospital...
Hattie put the letters on my desk...I looked at the three letters sitting on my desk like unopened presents. I left them there while I made coffee for us all...
~~~

Recipe For Murder

1 Stocky Man Who Abuses His Wife
1 Small Tender Wife
1 Medium-size Tough Woman in Love with the Wife
1 Double-Barreled Shotgun
1 Small Karoo Town Marinated in Secrets
 1 Mild Gardener
1 Red-Hot New Yorker
7 Seventh-Day Adventists (Prepared for the End of the World)
1 Hard-Boiled Investigative Journalist
1 Soft Amateur Detective
2 Cool Policemen
1 Handful of Red Herrings and Suspects Mixed Together
Pinch of Greed

Throw all the ingredients into a big pot and simmer slowly, stirring with a wood spoon for a few years. Add some chilis and brandy toward the end and turn up the heat.

~~~

Recipes for Love and Murder:

A Tannie Maria Mystery

By Sally Andrew

The Amateur Detective genre has a new series that you've just got to check out! Especially if you like to learn and explore new areas of the world--Klein Karoo in Africa this time... Especially if you like the beginning and then mellowing love interest that is a staple characteristic of this type of story, normally between the local policeman and the amateur detective... And, this time, especially if you enjoy cooking--with many recipes included!

Back off or Die

For me, I was most drawn in by the main character, Tannie [rhymes with honey] Marie. Tannie is a wonderful character who loves nature, her chickens, cooking, and believes food equals love... So she loves all those around her with some type of treat, especially if their emotions need to be "stroked..." and when they are having fun... and, while they are working... You get the idea. Kinda reminded me of my sister when I retired from working... and I had also moved closer to her home... I was getting homemade food and some type of sweet on an almost continuous basis for awhile!

In fact, Maria's occupation was as a food column writer for the Klein Karoo Gazette. At least initially... But the sponsors of the newspaper wanted to have a lovelorn column, which they figured would be more popular--even though Maria's column was already popular. Soooo, the head of the newspaper agreed to combine the two topics!

And that's how the whole Gazette staff became involved...in solving a murder, or two...

"Oh hell, I'm such a total idiot. Please tear up
that last letter. If my husband ever sees or
hears about it...I'm a fool. Please don't
publish it. Destroy it. I beg you."
~~~

Marie quickly started receiving letters asking for personal advice... To keep the "flavor" of the former column, she always included a recipe of some food--some even ask for a recipe to help in their love life!

But one woman wrote about having an abusive husband who she was afraid of and that began a series of letters between Marie and the woman... I must add that many of the other letters to Tannie Maria were included...and sweet...and soon Maria was becoming popular because they had added a web site and the letters and answer were posted. Maria had great empathy because her husband had abused her and she knew what types of questions and issues brought sadness and concern to lonely people...Food was always the answer and she even tried new recipes to be sure she was giving good advice...

Such as for how to prepare ostrich...

But before long the woman had been murdered!

And another woman came out of the woodwork, as a friend, would-be lover if she had her way, who accused her husband of everything. From then on, the husband and his wife's would-be lover, were out to kill the other for the murder! 

And then another murder occurred...

I had seen two dead bodies before this one. In coffins. My mother's and my husband's. At the sight of each of them, strong feelings had swum up from deep inside me and taken the air from my mouth. But I did not know this man, Lawrence, at all, so I was surprised to find such feelings coming up in me again. He was not in a coffin. His blood was still fresh. Just now he'd been walking in the rain, smoking, talking. He was alive. Then someone shot that out of him...Stole it from him forever. Murder is the worst kind of stealing. Martine's life had been stolen. And now Lawrence's.

~~~

OK, I admit it, this book made me hungry! LOL  Everytime something happened, Marie was cooking--lots of desserts which I love--and passing them out... I was even forced to check out the recipes in the back of the book to see if...well...that didn't work for me, but I am sure many of you will want to try such dishes as  perfect buttermilk chocolate cake or mango sorbet, and many more.

Maria started cooking whenever she knew when that one police officer was coming to ask her for the letters she received, ask questions, or later to protect her... and during such conversations, she'd stop and point out the sound of a certain bird or throw a handful of feed to her chickens who had come running...

Neither of them was looking for love, both hurt in previous relationships. Those past feelings of pain were now melting away and neither quite knew what to do with what they knew was happening...

Now of course I was cross with Kannenemeyer after that. He was stubborn. Rude, in fact. How could he leave without cake? But I was more cross with myself, I shoul've brought it out soon. I went into the kitchen and began icing the cake. If he had only seen it. Or smelled it. "I messed up," I said to the cake. "If he had a taste of you. He would have agreed to anything I asked." I licked a bit of rum-and-chocolate icing off my finger. "Anything."..

~~~

This debut of a new series is wonderfully written, a great way to escape from your world and just enjoy a fun read.  I loved this one and fully expect that the series will continue to gain more popularity. There is a little disruption, but an interesting diversion, while reading due to the insertion of the native language sometimes used by Maria. There is a full, lengthy glossary where you can find the translation and definition or sometimes a lengthier background paragraph. 

Highly recommended.

GABixlerReviews

Sally Andrew lives in a mud-brick house on a nature reserve in the Klein Karoo, South Africa, with her partner, artist Bowen Boshier, and other wildlife (including a giant eland and a secretive leopard). She also spends time in the wilderness of southern Africa and the seaside suburb of Muizenberg. She has a Masters in Adult Education (University of Cape Town).

For some decades she was a social and environmental activist, then the manager of Bowen’s art business, before she settled down to write full-time. This is her first novel. It will be published in at least twelve languages, across five continents.

Pictures used today are from the author's web site: 

http://www.sallyandrew.com/

How the Water Falls by K. P. Kollenborn Takes Us Deep Into Lives Affected by Apartheid...

I am privileged to have had the opportunity to read How the Water Falls by K. P. Kollenborn, who says:

Submitting to History Allows us to Remember. Although writing can help decipher history, it's our humanity which keeps all of us striving for an improved future...

May we share her vision...


See full article

Now Meet Your Main Characters! Don't you love it when you can see Faces!
http://howthewaterfalls.com/characters.htm

How The Water Falls

By K. P. Kollenborn

"Water is Life. Without the Flow of Water, There Only Can Be Death..."

When you see the people that are

involved....When you look into their

eyes, what do you see?

K. P. Kollenborn has given us

the opportunity to see those

eyes...How will you respond to these

eyes that dare you to

experience what they have felt...

The Internet is full of information about South Africa, Apartheid,  Mandela, and all those various opinions about the past, the future, the now... But, for me, nothing better brings the total picture

 for me to true understanding, is a novel based upon historical facts. This is a psychological thriller--it really couldn't have been anything else in my opinion. It is in creating characters to illustrate the "reality" of what is going on with the main characters that we truly begin to realize ...and empathize. 

Two strong women bring to you the separation issue of color... But in this case, the white female has great sympathy for those who are subjugated by the white population. Joanne is a reporter, while Lena is or was an activist, before she was banned. I don't want to say that her background story is typical, rather that it was entirely what we would have expected from the news...raped at an early age...etc... But when you actually meet Lena and see and hear her interact with others, that's when you will know the psychology of how she became the strong woman who helped to lead the way for others...

Perhaps I have come to expect that the two women would be strong of character and would take leading roles in this and other stories. In fact, I have a preference for that type of female character.

Interestingly, however, it was the main male character with whom I felt the most sympathy and empathy. Jared Borghost came from a family of military men and had himself participated in many battles...until he could no longer live with himself...

His family demanded he accept duty as his guiding light in all actions, as his older brother Hans did...

But Jared's conscience, his morality continuously led him from a mandated willingness to "do his duty" as his family and other white Afrikaners and Dutch ancestors did.

So that, in the end, he was totally alone, rejected by his family, because he was no longer willing to follow the duty assigned to him. It was interesting that later in the story, he was accused of having killed a man's son who was prepared to kill him... What had happened was that his orders to ensure no deaths of children and women was not followed. It was when he had to go try to stop the shooting that he was seen and assumed to be the murderer... How many times are people condemned for having been in the wrong place at the wrong time... But, isn't that one of the main problems when men are forced to fight for something in which they don't believe?

So it was not surprising that Jared, when Joanne asked to meet with him for his story, soon began to fall in love with her...or perhaps not in love at first, but merely was able to see that she was somebody who was willing to keep after his side of the stories that were being spread... For surely, we all need at least one friend who will listen to us, don't we?

On March 21, 1960, South African police officers opened fire on a crowd of black protesters who had surrounded a police station in Sharpeville, killing 69 people.

The Sharpeville protests began over South Africa’s pass laws, which required black South Africans to carry passbooks with them any time they traveled out of their designated home areas.

Rather than providing an excerpt from the book about the issue of passbooks, I've provided an actual result that made headlines in the NY Times... Imagine Jared, whose brother Hans has become Johannesburg's commissioner of police, as he watches scenes like the one above or others which are worse, or continuous... Jared had to face that he would never again really be a brother or a member of his family, if he opened his mouth to talk to Joanne for her newspaper...

Yet he did...

Yes, it is fiction, but readers who want to learn historically about our world's major issues, will find Kollenborn's novel a must-read. Explore each of the characters and find yourself in this book. Would you be a racist and choose sides, or would you be a White who vehemently opposed the white government leaders and police, or would you be a black child who grew up in his own country and hate what has happened to his love and freedom that was once there in his homeland? The key for me was that I could empathize with each. But in the end, I merely confirmed for myself that, I, too, would, if necessary, fight against my white family to do what was right!

Do you read fiction which also is a personal and rewarding learning experience? I'm finding that there are many writers out there that take time to research and create fiction that opens up historical books and newspapers or television news in a wholly different and exciting way. This book by K. P. Kollenborn moves deeply into the complex issues that surrounded Apartheid as well as the personal biases or prejudices that often turns out to be the bottomline reason for all wars.

Highly recommended not only as an exciting thriller, but as a wonderful illustration of this past and present world-wide issue.   And, thank you, K. P. Kollenborn for your outstanding effort to spotlight deceptions and lies in a manner needed to constantly strive to affect change.


GABixlerReviews

I am fortunate to have been trained by one the top ten writing teachers in the US, the late Leonard Bishop, and author of Dare to be a Great Writer. I owe my love of writing to him. How The Water Falls is my second novel. Although I’ve been writing since my childhood, I have a BA in history. I love studying history as much as wanting to evoke stories. I like to believe that after decades worth of introspection we have learned more wisely than something that happened yesterday, because what happened yesterday affects how we live today. Why South Africa? I live in the Midwest and grew-up in a medium size town where cultural diversity is a bit underdeveloped. My reason is simple: I don’t want to continue to live in a conical world. Consciousness does not develop and mature by existing in a frozen pond. That’s why I love history: To learn. To question. To redeem our humanity. Submitting to a moment in time allows us to remember, or to muse even, over our society’s past. Although writing can educate as well as entertain, yet what makes art incredibly amazing, to that of paintings, photographs, and music, it transposes emotion into another form of humanity, and therefore, it is our humanity which keeps all of us striving for an improved future. My husband and I once owned a music store, a pizza delivery business, and several internet businesses. I also have dabbled with real estate and am grateful I got the heck out right before the crash! Sadly, history tends to repeat itself in important ways. Currently my family continues to live outside of Kansas City and will always have roots tied to Kansas. Follow Blog:

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Travel to Lesotho, Africa, In L. A. Forbes Tales of Deceit...

By 7:00 the next morning, the seven thousand foot valley was already flooded in sunlight, everything freshened from yesterday's downpour. Before leaving for school, Lucy checked up on her older brother Thabo, who was recuperating in another rondavel on their compound. She smelled dagga. His sudden appearance back in Malikeng last year was traumatic for Lucy and her sister, Grace. Barely recognizable, Thabo stubbornly resisted going to the medical clinic until the local sangoma said there was nothing more she could do. Now he had the equivalent of a small pharmacy of meds to take, and smoking dagga made it easier to cope.
Raised garden beds of carrots, beans, chard, mustard, tomatoes and squash, plus ripening peach trees, filled the fenced-in property. Lucy's prized spiral aloe, transplanted long ago to her rondavel garden, just finished its long bloom, signalling a new year.
Lucy came back to Malikeng, her natal village, three years ago after completing university and student teaching in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. She thought city kids were disrespectful and unruly, and Maseru was hectic and noisy. Her students in Malikeng came from four local villages in the remote Lesotho mountain valley. For the most part, they were polite and well behaved.
~~~

Spiral Aloe: 

 Deceit in Lesotho

 Africa's Mountain Kingdom

By L. A. Forbes

Sarah had come to Africa as a volunteer in the Peace Corps, but it had been mainly because she had become restless after a breakup with her boyfriend as well as weary of her her public health work... She had never heard of Lesotho as, I am sure, many of us had not.

The young women grabbed their notebooks and
 chalk and went to their classrooms.
The public school was a four room,
one-story, concrete-block building on a hectare
 of land. There was no electricity, just lots
of north-facing windows. Gravity-fed,
piped-in mountain water was more than enough
 for the students, kitchen, orchard and vegetable
 gardens. It was a dramatic setting. The surrounding
 Drakensberg mountains, which extended through Lesotho
 and South Africa, reached ten thousand feet around
 the valley and were emerald green in summer.
Upper slopes were covered with reeds, ericas (heathers),
 proteas, succulents and wild flowers. The valley floor
was loosely divided into four villages, surrounded by
 intensely farmed fields of maize, beans and millet.
Some fields extended up the mountain slopes. Land
 ownership was privately held and passed down
 through families, rarely changing hands.
Their school went through grade nine.
~~~

As you can see from the pictures, it is a beautiful country, although with few conveniences. She had left her Albuquerque home because it was getting too big--quite a change though, wasn't it?

She would be helping {in a small fictional town much like those there} with an AIDS education program, but had little experience in preparing for such an activity...But the people she met were all very friendly, especially Lucy and others teachers with whom she would be working.

I found it interesting that the secrecy and unwillingness to face AIDS was just as prominent there as it was in the U.S. For me, my thoughts was that because it was so prominent in the world that everybody should be anxious to learn what to do... Because it was so closely aligned with sexuality, however, part of the issue was racially concerned, thinking that any help would require abstinence and thus fewer births, a desire of white people...

Sarah spent much time just getting to know the people in her location and then began to travel to other villages, so that soon she was known and recognized and somewhat accepted.

She had taken the time when she first got there to have a local woman teach her the language beyond what she had already learned through the Corps' program. Lucy had chosen a well-known woman who also made the joala, a local beer, for the small bar that they had built next to their home...

Sarah found that the children were very anxious to interaction with her, especially when they visited her in her home, a rondavel that had been provided by the leader of the tribe where she was staying...

They were amazed that she would have the place for just herself, so many immediately volunteers to live with her, which she had to nicely refuse...but she soon had to be involved with them in all aspects of living within the village and she delighted to getting to know everybody...

I want to stop here and point out that the author did live and work in the area and still lives in the country. To me, this was an important part of reading and absorbing the story line. In my opinion, you see, the tales of deceit are hidden within the story which is written almost like a folk tale that is past down through the generations. It is about the lives of the people living in the area and there was, for me, an underlying attitude picked up by the author, somewhat like it would have been presented to her as she was settling in to work...

You see, the deceit is not what we in the United States might think of as we consider the word...

It is about doing what you have to do to keep on living!

Death and dying are accepted as a natural part of that living. Those who had been involved sexually with others did not normally think about using a condom to prevent AIDS. If the woman didn't mind whether she got pregnant, then requiring a condom seemed an interference in their lovemaking... There are two young men in the book--one was a player, one was just a guy who was away from home and lonely, with little to do... Readers get to know both very well. Thabo has been diagnosed, but he came home and with help has been on medication and is doing better. Thabo after talking with Sarah and his family, decided to help with the prevention program, being willing to honestly share with them about what he had and was now going through.

Growing and selling daga was done by many of those who had the land. Regular planting would occur, but then, the dagga, marijuana, which grew well in the area, was planted in between the other rows. There were mining jobs in other parts of the country, but this required that the men be far away from home and their families for long periods of time. Allowing daga to be planted on their property and getting a portion of the profits was a small deceit, I am sure, for many who needed to be home and were willing to take the risk...

Toby was the main man dealing with those who purchased the dagga. But he was also a player, going after as many females as he wanted, even getting at least one pregnant and merely telling her to have it aborted. That she didn't then became only her problem. He thought about helping her financially, but never got around to it. He was a busy man who had recently bought a hot vehicle and was routinely offering to help people, using it for delivering supplies to the schools for instance. The teachers were grateful since their previous loads never came or were never completely filled...due to the taxi drivers... They were not making as much now since these special jobs had "paid better..."

Many of the town's men spent much time and money at the local bar but nobody but the one who made this brew knew it was a "special" recipe, which helped bring the men back! On the other hand, it was the same woman who collected herbs and other materials used in place of medicines, such as the Spiral Aloe, hidden now, to allow growth, because the men had sold off most of what was found in the hills...

        Aloe Polyphylla, or Spiral Aloe, grows in the wild above 2000 meters (6600 feet) in the mountains of Lesotho in southern Africa. Spiral arrangements of leaves can be counter- or clockwise. It's often covered in snow in winter. Considered endangered. This gem, which thrives in harsh mountainous terrain, is a perfect metaphor for the hardy Basotho, the people of Lesotho. 

Many of us routinely deceive in small or large ways. Toby, for instance, had not been willing to be tested, so that when his girlfriend got pregnant and they found her to be infected, he was caught--even then he hadn't gone...

So when this book suddenly closed, it made perfect sense to me... A man had died in an accident; neighbors were happy that it hadn't been one of the buses or taxis with many people... When disease and death arrives from something as vital to life as our own sexuality, it forces many to make choices--some of them are deceitful... What would you do? There are "real" examples within this short story. What would you do if you needed money to buy food or educate your children?

L. A. Forbes gives readers much to consider. Some people in America have similar situations...Do you try to help or call the law on those who cannot make enough for food for their children?

Thanks to the author for sharing about the lives of those living in Lesotho and other similar villages in Africa...Individuals interested in travel, world events, or personal life drama should consider this one!




GABixlerReviews

About this author

I've had a peripatetic existence, by choice. I grew up in Montana, graduated from UW, Seattle in archeology and worked in The Philippines with Asian ceramics dating from the 10th to 19th centuries. From there I traveled independently to Tibet, China, Burma and Vietnam, often seeing places just opened to foreigners.

Next chapter was in southern Utah starting and running a successful business in Moab for seven years. I still love the Colorado Plateau area. From the southwest my husband and I moved to Lesotho, southern Africa and taught small business and HIV/AIDS prevention for two years. We've travelled into Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia and all over South Africa.

I've resided in South Africa since 2004. I teach ESL (Cambridge CELTA certificate) and maths, working mostly with rural schools. The intense politics and disparities, coupled with stunning people, make RSA an amazing place to live.

I self-published "Spiral Aloe: Deceit in Lesotho, Africa's Mountain Kingdom", a work of fiction about that beautiful country.

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Review: Exciting, Edgy Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer!

Image via WikipediaThirteen Hours
By Deon Meyer










Did you ever read a book that got your adrenalin going? Well, Deon Meyer has given us such a book with Thirteen Hours! Seriously, readers, if you haven't read him yet, well, you are missing one of the best authors around!

This thriller has a number of different storylines running simultaneously. Set in South Africa, readers are swiftly taken from scene to scene to help us get into the mind of Benny Griessel, a homicide detective who had a "bad feeling" right from the start of the day...05:36 AM.

Griessel, an alcoholic who has been sober nearly six months has also been separated from his wife for the same time period. In fact, she is the one who demanded the six month period before she would even talk about getting back together. They are to have dinner that evening...

In the meantime, at work amidst other upheavals in the police service, he has been assigned to "mentor" new officers--the thing is, when this day arrives, that means that he isn't in charge of any investigation--he's required to "oversee" everything that is happening!

Primary in the day is the search for an American girl, who is being chased by a group of young men. Her friend had been murdered the evening before and the girl has been running for hours...nobody knows why, including the readers, so we are all wondering why they are chasing her and what they want! Which, of course, makes it harder to pick up leads and follow the trail! Benny has been established as the primary contact for the girl's parents in American and, somewhat foolishly, Benny promises her father that he will find her! Now he intends to keep that promise...

At the same time, the head of an African music recording company has been found in the bedroom of his home, with his wife, drunk, along side of him. Benny recognizes the wife and knows that she is a former singing sensation before she married. Her struggle and need for alcohol brings out both empathy for her and sets his own needs on edge as he tries to interview her. They quickly realize that the husband has been dumped from another killing site, but that does not exclude the wife from having arranged it, and that becomes more complicated when she attempts suicide!

Benny finds himself not only dealing with three fairly new police officers who want to do their own thing, but he soon learns that the manpower needed will require multiple agencies that comes with the usual bureaucratic power struggles. No wonder as he moves from one place to another, his mind wanders to his need for a drink and whether he can make it without--at least one of his few friends brought him some food while he was interviewing workers at a club--the rows of alcohol there had been torture for him.

I loved Griessel as the main character. Even with his personal issues, he was completely devoted to dealing with everything that had fallen to him. His urgency as he ran from site to site sets readers' hearts racing and we just don't stop until Benny does! Even his final personal decisions, after the Thirteen Hours are over (22:01) are richly rewarding as we see him moving forward, a stronger man.  What a cool book; really, a must-read must be my recommendation to you...

Book Received Via
Amazon Vine
Atlantic Monthly Press
ISBN: 9780802119582
412 Pages

G. A. Bixler

(THIRTEEN HOURS) BY Meyer, Deon (Author) Hardcover{Thirteen Hours}

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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