by Tess Gerritsen (Bantam Press)
I’m not a huge fan of crime novels. I see enough blood and gore in my every day job to last me a lifetime and more.
But I have to admit an addiction to the duo of Detective Jane Rizzoli and Dr Maura Isles.
This book is special because of the African, particularly South African, thread that runs through it. Central to the story is an understanding of African wild cats – animals I have a huge respect for.
The novel starts with a first-person narration from theloom bandsin Botswana, where Millie is on an African safari with her partner, Richard Renwick – a crime writer from England.
It’s not her idea of a perfect holiday, but she perseveres in the hope that she and Richard can rekindle the spark in their relationship.
But as Richard shows more interest in the buxom South African blondes in their group, and Millie herself is drawn to Johnny, their South African guide, the adventure turns into a nightmare and only one of the group of nine lives to tell the tale – Millie stumbles out of the bush weeks later, clutching on a thin thread of life.
She is sure she knows who the killer among them was.
Six years later, a hunter and taxidermist is found strung and gutted (very much as he has done to many an animal) in his garage in Boston.
Soon after this discovery, the remains of another victim are found – but not in Boston.
Based on unusual marks on the sternum of each victim, Dr Isles believes strongly that the murders are related.
A series of investigations establishes a tenuous link between the two murders, but the detectives are not entirely convinced.
Eventually, they stumble upon Millie’s name and Rizzoli has to travel to a tiny town in the Cape, where a reclusive and scarred Millie has a new life under a new name, to convince her to go back to Boston to help them identify the killer.
She finally agrees after much resistance, but things are not smooth sailing in Boston and soon Millie learns that in order to leave the past behind her once and for all, she will have to die again…
As I paged through this novel, I was struck by Tess Gerritsen’s appreciation and depiction of African cats in the wild.
Her handling of Africa and African characters comes across as authentic and sincere as well.
This is Gerritsen at her usual best.