WHITE BONE

The improbable stars of Rutherford Risk tangle with murderous ivory poachers and warring local cops, rangers, and strongmen in Nairobi and the even wilder Kenyan countryside.

Nobody ever told Grace Chu that the only field even less exciting than insurance was accounting. Now she’s flown to Kenya in search of a missing $1 million belonging to Rutherford client Graham Winston and she's disappeared herself, setting hearts aflutter back in England—especially that of John Knox, the independent contractor whose earlier adventures with Grace (The Red Room, 2014, etc.) have never quite blossomed into love. Following Grace’s trail to Nairobi, Knox promptly runs afoul of the authorities and is soon sought for killing a police officer. His only allies are incorruptible cop Kanika Alkinyi, conservation activist Travis Brantingham, and Bishoppe, the enterprising 14-year-old to whom he unwillingly entrusts his security and his life. Grace, who’s unmasked a gigantic swindle by dauntingly influential Xin Ha, of Asian Container Consolidated, won’t be easy to find because she’s been abandoned in the bush, far from help or civilization, by Assim Guuleed’s band of poachers, who want her death to look like an accident—unless of course they change their minds and decide to retrieve her once more. Law enforcement hunts Knox, Knox hunts Grace, Guuleed hunts Grace, Grace searches for rescuers and strategies to save herself despite her waning energies and mounting injuries, and in the background, everyone involved searches for elephants to poach or protect. All this would all seem overcomplicated and pointless if canny Pearson didn’t equip each of the parties with unruffled self-conviction and a grab bag of unexpected resources.

This crackling adventure doubles as a survival guide for your next trip to the striking, endangered landscape of East Africa.