THE LEOPARD’S PREY

The most dangerous animals in Nairobi circa 1920 are the two-legged kind.

After unraveling a kidnapping plot in Morocco (The Serpent’s Daughter, 2008, etc.), Jade del Cameron has returned to her beloved Kenya Colony to help friends at the Perkins and Daley Zoological Company rescue wild animals that, if not captured for transfer to zoos, would fall prey to hunters. She’s particularly interested in a pair of rare leopards. Jade’s attempts to capture the wild cats are immortalized on film by Sam Featherstone, a World War I flying ace turned moviemaker and, not incidentally, Jade’s boyfriend. The globetrotting adventuress teases her friend Madeline Thompson about Maddy’s overheated but bestselling adventure novels, with titles like Ivory Blood and Stalking Death. The mood turns dark, however, when Sam discovers a corpse in the Thompsons’ coffee dryer. The dead man is Martin Stokes, owner of Stokes and Berryhill Store in Nairobi, the very man who sold Maddy and her husband Neville the coffee dryer. Stokes’ wife Alice has recently gone missing; an ad placed in the local paper, presumably by Stokes, seeks help in finding her. When Sam is implicated as Stokes’ killer, plucky Jade, whose interests include flying airplanes and taking photographs, turns sleuth once more. A dangerous plane crash thickens the plot for the supporting cast of colorful colonials who serve as suspects.

A lively mystery adventure with a strong sense of both its historical period and its exotic locale.