Finished Tu 3/17/2020
This is a paperback that I bought at the library book sale Sa 4/13/19
The book deals with the illegal capturing and plundering of endangered species around the world. It's set mainly in Florida and Brunei which is west of Malaysia and east of Indonesia.
BASIC STORYLINE:
Patric, a relation of the Shah of Brunei is building a large, state of the art, zoo or preserve on the island of Borneo. I learned from background reading that the Shah makes '$147 a second, every day'!
Alison is an activist trying to stop the illegal trading and slaughter of animals. She has two daughters, Winslow and Sean. Winslow is a photographer and she was shooting with Alison on an outing in the wild. Winslow is shot and killed and Alison barely escapes.
Raimondo and Orlando (Rayon and Orlon) are two psychopaths. Orlando is hairless and believes that his whole life centers on the movies. He kills without compunction. Ray is the saner of the two and he was told by his dying mother to keep an eye on Orlon. Ray is movie star handsome, blonde, although Orlon is the big hit with the ladies.
Harry is Alison's husband. Alison is planning to leave him, and at the end of the novel it's revealed that Harry has been working with Patric Sarawak to set up this reserve.
Thorn is an old friend of Alison's father and he lives in the backwaters of Florida. He's what you would call a 'swamp rat'. He lives outside of civilization. He helps Alison stop the threats on her life and finally saves the day.
AN INTERESTING TAKE-AWAY FROM THE BOOK:
Who are smarter, Chimps or Orangutans? Chimps are like dogs. They are herd animals and can be trained to do tricks and they also learn as a group when in the wild. Orangutans are solitary animals and are more like cats. They bond with their mothers for almost the first three years of their lives. A mother will carry a baby for this time swinging high in the trees. Then, the orangutan will live in the wild by themselves. They are very inquisitive, yet they seem to learn better on their own.
From Publishers Weekly
"Prowling from the crime-ridden south Florida killing fields to the steamy jungles of Malaysia, Hall's latest novel finds Thorn, the moody hero of several previous yarns (Mean High Tide, etc.), entangled in the crusades of childhood friend Allison Farleigh, founder of the Wildlife Protection League, a worldwide organization dedicated to saving exotic endangered animals. When Allison's eldest daughter is shot dead while accompanying her mother and younger sister on the annual orangutan census in the wilds of Borneo, Thorn gets embroiled in the case, which eventually pits him against a sociopathic pair of twins engaged in the brokering of rare animals to zoological collectors-and, lurking behind them, a rich and powerful collector whose designs bring the action to Brunei for a brutally satisfying denouement. Hall's fans may be surprised to find that Thorn plays second fiddle here to Allison, but they won't be disappointed with this charismatically courageous woman or her adventures. With its far-flung locales and unexpected heroine, this is Hall's most ambitious novel yet, a work of considerable moral depth distinguished by rich characterizations, live-wire prose and bolts of offbeat humor."
I enjoyed the novel and would read more by this author, but I felt that the novel dragged in certain sections.
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