Tony Park specialises in writing action-packed novels set in Africa, that highlight the many issues in this continent.
The main character in this book, Joanne Flack, is on the run. She is suspected of stealing a rare African plant thought to be extinct and worth millions of dollars.
Joanne is a member of the Pretoria Cycad and Firearms Appreciation Society, which sounds like a cosy club for retired people, but appearances are deceiving. These older people have plants and guns in common, and they have all seen some form of combat.
Sonja Kurtz is hired by the CIA to hunt down Joanne and find the link between the missing plant and a terrorist group hiding out in South Africa, which leads her to a Kuwait Prince and his compound in Africa.
But it turns out there is a traitor in the midst of the Pretoria Cycad and Firearms Appreciation Society, and things are going to get very complicated.
I enjoyed the characters in this novel and the general premise. I would have liked to have a bit more about their relationships and just a little less of the explosions and fighting, however. But it’s a good, pacey read nonetheless.
Macmillan Publishers