Elephants' Graveyard: An African Wildlife Mystery: Book 2

Jazz Jasper #2

by Karin McQuillan

Recovering from a bad divorce, American expatriate Jazz Jasper moves to Africa to live out her childhood dream of being a safari guide. She’s started her own company, but is between jobs and takes an African friend – Inspector Omondi, a city slicker cop from Nairobi - to visit wealthy Emmet Laird, head of Save the Elephants. They find him dead beside an elephant watering hole. Jazz is pressed into investigating the crime by Laird’s girlfriend. As the track leads her from Nairobi’s close-knit white community, to dangerous shanty towns, to the wild highlands of Kenya’s mountain district, Jazz becomes convinced the killer is close at hand…
Karin McQuillan has written a brilliant first novel. I read Deadly Safari through in a sitting and loved it. I can't wait for her next.
--Robert B. Parker
"Everything everyone can want--suspense, real people as characters, and real, untamed Africa out there in the darkness."
--Tony Hillerman
I like the setting and the sound of your writing. You obviously know what you're doing."
--Elmore Leonard
One of the best mystery novels I have read in a long time. It has everything--good plotting with pace and action, high-quality writing, good characterization and dialogue, and of course, the wonderful descriptions of wildlife. What more can I say? It is a page-turner to the end.
--Dorothy Simpson
"The jacket of Deadly Safari...contains so much fulsome praise from well-known writers that you know it can't possibly be that good. It is. McQuillan...keeps the suspense going for nearly 300 pages, teasing the reader into agreeing with safari company owner Jazz Jasper as she suspects each of her clients in turn...hard to put down...you will be halfway to booking your own safari...before the spell wears off."
--UPI
Reading the quotes from praising authors regarding Ms. McQuillans first novel is like paging through a list of who's who in the mystery genre. . . I haven't heard a discouraging word about this book. I was skeptical. It couldn't be THAT good, could it? Well, it IS that good! Try as I might to remain aloof, I was quickly drawn into the sensuous and exciting world of Jazz Jasper. The Kenyan wilderness comes alive...the characters engaging and the plot well developed...you (won't) be able to figure out whodunnit.
--Over My Dead Body

Praise for Elephants’ Graveyard
This is a book I couldn’t put down, a story I didn’t want to end.” THE BEST MYSTERY OF 1993.
--Clarion-Ledger
A perceptive, realistic, dramatic mystery set in problematic present-day Kenya, this book is an excellent selection."
-- Library Journal

"McQuillan's cast comments intriguingly, and often amusingly, on African culture as she conjures evocative scenes of dusty bush heat, elephants, lions and the wilder urban life of Majengo, a treacherous, teeming slum...colorful setting, fascinating insights into daily life in Kenya. The story is fast-paced and Jasper is charming and self-reliant.
-- The San Francisco Chronicle

"Ambitious and captivating...a cleverly conceived murder. The author imbued her story not only with a depiction of living conditions but the soul and attitudes of another culture. The author's love of nature brings a special quality to her story. Her masterful handling of plot and characters is an added bonus."
--Mystery News

"No reader will be able to resist the storytelling magnificence of Elephants' Graveyard Karin McQuillan is a masterful writer, all the while enriching her complex plot with the insight and compassion of a caring soul." THE BEST MYSTERY OF 1993.
--The Clarion-Ledger

Genres: Mystery, Africa, Fiction, Kenya

314 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 23, 1993

About the author

Karin McQuillan is a psychotherapist and author of several mystery novels.

Series:
* Jazz Jasper

Reviews

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable. I would have liked the romance to turn out a bit differently and maybe a little follow up on Mikki, but that's personal preference. The story was well written, well-paced and mostly plausible. It hi-lighted a real problem (poaching) without getting preachy-a plus! Would definitely recommend this one.

[Ella Bennet]

insomma...
sarà che l'ho letto in modo un po' discontinuo ma non mi ha entusiasmata.
Importante il messaggio di condanna relativo al bracconaggio in particolare all'uccisione degli elefanti per l'avorio.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining story about poachers and ivory trade in Nairobi, Kenya.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I missed the safari setting in this one but the background on ivory poaching was an interesting plotline.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chose this because it was set in Kenya

[Marcia Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the exotic setting of Kenya, the complex characters, and a rip-roaring adventure story, this novel achieves more than just a mystery. Heroine/sleuth Jazz Jasper faces danger with courage and quick-witted enterprise. Author Karin McQuillan draws upon themes relating the poaching of elephants to the victimization of girls by FGM, to the oppression of women and nature. Jazz throws herself into peril like a female Philip Marlowe, solves the murder and sees justice done. A very satisfying read.