DANGER WOMAN

A Chobe National Park ranger tangles with the Russian Mafia.

"Bodies in the park was a very bad thing for the animals,” reflects Ranger Superintendent Kgopa Sanderson after naturalist Ole Andersen finds his favorite spotted hyena worrying a human skull. Superintendent Mwambe, of the Kasane police, is less than thrilled by her report if it requires him to leave his comfortable office to investigate. So he and Sanderson (Predators, 2010) are both happy to learn that the authorities in Gaborone are sending a team to assist. Joseph Ikanya isn’t happy to leave behind a pregnant wife for the thankless job of babysitting Mwabe. But Kgabo Modise is keen on the hunt. He hopes for a chance to take down the goons from the Bratva who are infiltrating Botswana’s fledgling casino industry and reunite with Sanderson. Modise’s main target is Oleg Lenka, a midlevel thug whose consort, Irena Davidova, dreams of spurring him to greater wealth and power in Africa than he could have possibly attained in St. Petersburg. But Lenka’s henchman, Yuri Greshenko, may provide an easier entry to the Bratva. While Anderson continues to stalk Kotsi Mosadi, the hyena pack leader known as “Danger Woman,” in the bush, Sanderson and Modise trail Lenka and Irena to picturesque Mowano Lodge, where the law of the jungle is beginning to gain the upper hand.

Ramsay, whose series covers the globe from first-century Jerusalem to Picketsville, Virginia, makes the most of local color in his final Botswana entry.