The Devil’s Punchbowl
By Greg Iles
Greg Iles, author of 12 best-selling novels, lives in Natchez, Mississippi and it’s a dramatic setting for his gripping new story. Penn Cage, a former Texas prosecutor, is now the mayor of Natchez and is confronted with horrifying evidence of corruption, depravity, violence and vice that tests his faith in human nature.
An old friend, once on the skids through drugs but who has turned his life around, comes to Cage secretly to try and stop what is going on aboard one of those huge casino boats dotting the river — money laundering and worse. When his friend is brutally murdered, Cage decides to investigate, which puts him and his loved ones, including a young daughter, in danger. His search for the truth uncovers some unspeakable blood sports and he makes some enemies determined to protect their floating cash cow. (H.B. Fenn)
Wildflower
By Mark Seal
When journalist Mark Seal travelled to Kenya to write for Vanity Fair about the murder of one of Africa’s most famous conservationists, he found the story so compelling he has turned it into a book. In 2006, Joan Root, 69-year old naturalist and award-winning wildlife photographer, was killed by two masked men in her home. Her murder followed other deaths of outspoken figures trying to save Africa’s vanishing natural resources.
In Joan Root’s case, it was caring for orphaned and unwanted animals from beautiful Lake Naivasha. The lake, an Eden-like paradise filled with fish, exotic birds and large mammals like hippopotami, was dying from over-fishing, pollution and above all, poachers. Seal tells the story of Root, a staunch protector of her lake’s fragile ecosystem. But by so doing, she made herself a target of dangerous men. (Random House)
