THE CROCODILE'S LAST EMBRACE

A spate of killings, a deadly crocodile and a vengeful ghost plague an intrepid heroine.

Nairobi, 1921. As an anonymous man secretly watches bold, beautiful Jade del Cameron, he regrets that he's been ordered to "break" her. Recently returned to her beloved Kenya after a stint in France, emancipated Jade busies herself by helping her friend Beverly Dunbury instruct the local Girl Guides academy. Expecting a letter from her beau Sam Featherstone, Jade is flummoxed by vivid memories of her long-dead husband David Worthy, whom she wed during World War I. She's unsettled by an accusatory letter in David's handwriting. Shortly after, Jade is an ear-witness to a suspicious accident involving a car on a bridge. Constable Miller agrees with her conclusion that Stockton, the driver, was murdered. Meanwhile, Jade begins to have hallucinations that involve seeing David and getting ominous messages from him. Waters, the chief suspect in the bridge murder, falls victim to a ravenous crocodile. At Jade's instigation, however, Miller determines that Waters was killed before the deadly predator dragged him into the water. Attempts to shoot the beast go awry. Comic relief comes in the person of Steven Holly, so besotted with Jade that he disguises himself as a female teacher in order to tag along on a school trip and woo her.

Jade's sixth adventure (Treasure of the Golden Cheetah, 2009, etc.) lacks finesse as a mystery, but keeps the action coming and packs its evocative landscape with sharply drawn characters, especially the likable, unsinkable Jade.