DEADLY SAFARI

A fair-to-middling first novel, whose appallingly clich‚d characters--the sponsor and ad people in Africa to shoot a Wild and Free shampoo commercial--are far less appealing than their setting, which is deftly treated. Tour guide Jazz Jasper, who retreated to Africa after a broken marriage, suspects that her fledgling custom safari business may not survive its inaugural run when a hectoring client, Boyce Darnell, keels over in the Range Rover and dies, presumably of a heart attack. Then, however, her friend Lynn, Boyce's agency account exec, is stabbed through the throat with a Masai spear; Boyce's heart medicine shows signs of tampering--and it's clear that a double murderer is on the loose. Could it be Candy, the model who was about to be fired by Boyce? Al Hart, his partner who stood to lose his shares if Boyce lived? The cynically gay commercial director Cliff? The partners' wives--grieving, holier-than-thou Eleanor and ever-so-helpful Madge? Inspector Omondi, dispatched from Nairobi to the group's encampment, soon reveals all (after a warm and friendly overnight with Jazz)--in a wrap-up fraught with corn as high as, well, an elephant's eye. Nice animal sightings, plus an impassioned plea to save African wildlife, but--excluding the waffling Jazz and raffish Omondi--trite humans with atrocious manners.