Customer Reviews

Elephants' Graveyard

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Karin McQuillan's three Jazz Jasper mysteries - Deadly Safari, Elephants' Graveyard, and the Cheetah Chase - are set in Kenya safari country. In Elephant's Graveyard, #2 of the series, Jazz takes on the murder of a friend's lover, found dead beside an elephants' watering hole. She pursues the killer through the politics of African animal conservation, the back streets of black and white Nairobi, and the beautiful Kenya safari country.

McQuillan provides every ingredient of a successful mystery: likeable and believable characters, credible motives, a fine sense of pacing, a satisfying conclusion, a passionate love story, and a setting so vivid it becomes a character in itself. Elephants' Graveyard is a "one-sitting" read. Don't even start it if you're busy!

This is my second book by author Karin McQuillan, and I am ready to read her third - Cheetah Chase! The book is well written, interesting - fast paced and lyrical at different points. The author's love of Africa, of its wildlife and her perceptive understanding of human nature come through very clearly. The book is written intelligently, with unexpected twists and turns to keep the reader curious and challenged. Its main protagonist is a real and likeable personality. I look forward to book number four!

The other two reviews have pointed out how, in Elephant's Graveyard and the other McQuillan books, the African nature scenes are terrific, and they are. What I want to point out is what a great heroine Jazz is. She moves fast, takes on adventures as if she were born for the chase, and never misses a beat as she navigates this exotic landscape. She has a thoroughly modern risk-taking sensibility and yet is totally feminine, not just a reproduction of tough guy detectives found in other novels. The real mystery is why this series hasn't continued. McQuillan's readers want to know more about this world of Africa and this character in it.

"Elephants" Graveyard", one of Karin Mcquillan's mysteries set in Africa (the others being "Deadly Safari" and "Cheetah Chase") is more than just a thrilling, good read. Ms Mcqillan is doing something that perhaps no other mystery writer is doing: she is combining her ability to write a fast paced murder mystery with her obvious love for nature and the animals she writes about. Ms. Mcquillan's deep concern about the dangers facing these animals as well as her knowledge of the disappearing environment which these animals inhabit should make her the darling of the World Wildlife Fund. She is doing them and us a great service. Like a wonderful juggling act, she is entertaining and thrilling her readers at the same time as she is instructing them. Read them all. They are marvelous!

The way, the author describes Kenya is wonderful. I've been there before and this book is like a safari to memory lane. Whether it is the beautiful Kenya of tourists and safaris and wildlife or the shocking Kenya of Nairobi slums, whether it is the culture of Kikuyu or the life of whites in this African country, it is all painted in vivid colors! I really loved that part. But the mystery part was sucks, pardon my language. I have already read "Deadly Safari" and it sounds so dumb, that the same lady should come across three murders in less than one year. And of course she solves them heroically. More or less without anybody's help. That's great, it's just a little too way off for my taste. If I may suggest something to the author: keep writing about Kenya, but try something different from mystery. Or at least let go of Jazz Jasper!

As with her first Jazz Jasper novel, Deadly Safari, Karin McQuillan's Elephant's Graveyard provides adventure, mystery and entertainment. That's a good start. On top of that, McQuillan's action scenes are among the most exciting and gritty ever written for a woman protagonist. Set in the beauty of the African Jungle, Elephant's Graveyard explores all kinds of relationships between people, animals, the environment, and ultimately, between good and evil. It's a great read that comes complete with a set of moral standards firmly in place. Write on, Karin McQuillan. Jazz is a winner.