4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Adventure and Romance in Kenya, February 5, 2009
Leopard's Prey by Suzanne Arruda
There is never a shortage of adventure in Suzanne Arruda's Jade Del Cameron mystery series. Set in colonial Africa in 1920, readers of this series can without a doubt always count on a lot of action, an intriguing background murder to puzzle out, and a genuine feeling of being right there in the time and place on the Kenyan plains.
The reader gets up close and personal with the exotic land of Africa at a time when wild animals ran free, and when native tribes such as the Maasai and Kikuyu had still not fallen into the hands of the white man. As you read, you will smell the hot arid African air, glimpse a sky full of twinkling stars come sundown, and will drive Safari style along a long dusty road in a jeep viewing herds of wild giraffe, buffalo, elephants or zebra.
The star of this delightful series, Jade Del Cameron, is a bit of a too independent rifle-toting, sarcastic spitfire, complete with her own motorcycle that she uses to take her pet cheetah name Biscuit out for a run. Within the four novels so far, one never knows what trouble or adventures she will encounter; anything from Big Game Hunting, outrages of Elephant Poaching, vacations to Morocco with her mother, kidnappings, murders, interactions with the local natives, or as in this new installment, soaring high in the sky with her love interest Sam Featherstone as he instructs her in flying lessons.
The reader always learns something new about Africa in the 1920's with each new installment of the series, and I can only say these stories are very enjoyable, delightful, and engaging. There is usually a sideline murder to solve but they almost seem to be irrelevant. The ongoing scenarios of the usual crowd of characters that appear in each story are what drive the books and allow the reader to get addicted to them. An additional fun feature, are the quotes that are inserted over each chapter head. Jade Del Cameron's way of making a living in Africa is being a professional reporter for a travel magazine called The Traveler. Quotes and paragraphs from her articles are placed in the front of each chapter allowing the reader to also get firsthand information on what is happening locally. In Leopard's Prey, wonderful Maasai myth and culture tidbits appear.
If you enjoy a light and easy simple mystery series with quaint characters that you can rely on to always make you smile, this series will not disappoint. Murder, romance, adventure, action, exotic locale....what more do you need for a few hours of sheer entertainment? Leopard's Prey, the fourth book in the series still holds steady to show us the author is still going strong and has not relented in giving us the goods. I highly recommend this book as well as the previous three in the set, and I eagerly await book five which should hopefully gives us some answers to the cliff hanger Arruda left us with on the last page.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Coffee Plantation Mystery, November 13, 2009
Young, fearless Jade del Cameron is back in her fourth African adventure. Last time, Jade had traveled to Morocco to meet her mother, but this time she returns to all her friends in Nairobi, British East Africa, now Kenya. Coffee farmers Neville and Madeline Thompson are going about their business when they find a body in their newly-purchased coffee dryer. Jade, who's been earning extra cash helping an outfit trap wild animals for a zoo, gets on the case immediately when her special friend, Sam Featherstone, is named as a suspect. Then, when Sam is hospitalized and Jade nearly crashes his plane because of sabotage, she decides to get to the bottom of the murder before Sam becomes the next victim. She investigates the owners of the local mercantile, other colonists, and befriends a few more natives in her quest for the truth, but before it's over, she almost winds up food for a leopard more than once.
The characters in this series are charming, the location is exotic, and Jade is a wonderful heroine. The mystery was decent, too, but this book dragged a bit in the middle, prolonging the growth of Jade's relationship with Sam. It seemed as if there were more scenes of Jade and Sam just missing each other than of actually advancing the story or getting closer to finding the murderer. As usual, though, the location was described in loving detail, as well as the lifestyle lived by African colonists almost 100 years ago. This book was further flavored by descriptions of a changing Africa, as it becomes more settled and also restless while more and more Europeans moved there. Though Jade's stalling relationship with Sam chafes a bit, all around, it's a very decent mystery from a familiar cast of wonderful characters. This a great series that I recommend. Jade is one of my favorite heroines.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A riveting, fast-paced mystery highly recommended, March 14, 2009
Suzanne Arruda's fourth mystery has Jade Del Cameron working for a zoological company in Nairobi, working to save a pair of leopards slated for execution. When bodies are found, Jade also finds herself working to clear her friend of murder charges - and finds herself piloting a plane and landing in African wilderness to face a brutal killer. THE LEOPARD'S PREY is a riveting, fast-paced mystery highly recommended for any mystery collection.
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