Reapers

Botswana Mystery #2

by Frederick Ramsay

The World Cup, which arrives in June, has ripple effects on all South Africa’s neighbors. The arrival of soccer fans, team owners, sponsors, and world dignitaries makes southern Africa, particularly Botswana, ripe for all sorts of intrigue and illicit activities. The American Secretary of State will visit the Chobe. The North Koreans, the Okavango, Arabs, French, Chinese, and Russians are scattered among the various lodges and hotels in the country before, during and after the games. And all will be watching and waiting on the others. Orgonise Africa, derived from Wilhelm Reich’s popularization of orgone energy and transmogrified by bad science and wishful thinking, is an effort by fanatics to push forward a plan to seed Africa with orgone, which they believe will purify the continent, rid it of drought, poverty, and HIV/AIDs. To the north, Patriarche, a silverback mountain gorilla, is forced to share his habitat with coltan miners led by General Le Grande, one of the Congo’s many bloody war lords. The profits from the sale of coltan, so prized by electronics manufacturers, help fuel the seemingly endless civil wars that plague that poor country. Sanderson, the Game Ranger in the Chobe National Park, finds a body. Tracking down the murderer opens doors that lead her and Inspector Kgabo Modise first to evidence of local bribery, then to smuggling, and finally to what could well provoke an international incident, except for the shrewd action of Modise and Botswana’s intelligence community.

249 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Dr. Frederick Ramsay was born in Baltimore, the son of a respected teacher researcher and scientist. He graduated from Washington and Lee University in Virginia and received his doctorate from the University of Illinois. After a stint in the Army, he joined the faculty of the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, where he taught Anatomy, Embryology and Histology; engaged in research and served as an Associate Dean. During this time he also pursued studies in theology and in 1971 was ordained an Episcopal priest.

Leaving academia, he tried his hand at a variety of vocations. At one time or another, he served as a Vice President for Public Affairs, worked as an insurance salesman, a tow man and line supervisor at Baltimore’s BWI airport, a community college instructor, and substitute. Finally, he accepted a full time position as a clergyman.

He is now retired from full-time ministry and writes fiction.

Dr. Ramsay is the author of several scientific and general articles, tracts, theses, and co-author of The Baltimore Declaration. He is an iconographer, an accomplished public speaker and once hosted a television spot, Prognosis, on the evening news for WMAR-TV, Baltimore. He currently lives in Surprise, Arizona with his wife and partner, Susan.

Reviews

[Robert Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished 04/25/2014. This book seems better than the first Botswana book, but that may be because the main characters are familiar. Leo Painter is building his hotel/casino w/the help of Yuri Greshenko, Ranger Samuelson is protecting the animals in the park, Modise of the DSI is pursuing criminals and S's son is dying of AIDS. Surprisingly, despite mutual antipathy by S & Mwambe of the police they are working together to find who has murdered a man within the park and why there unauthorized entries cut into the park fence. S & Mo form a romantic liaison & the World Cup is coming to South Africa and an international group of diplomats is coming to the local area.

[Kathleen Hagen]

Reapers: a Botswana Mystery, by Frederick Ramsay, b-plus, narrated by William Dufris, produced by Blackstone Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

Publisher’s note says it as well as I could:
The World Cup, which arrives in June, has ripple effects on all of South Africa's neighbors. The arrival of soccer fans, team owners, sponsors, and world
dignitaries makes southern Africa, particularly Botswana, ripe for all sorts of intrigue and illicit activities. The American Secretary of State will visit
the Chobe; the North Koreans, the Okavango; Arabs, French, Chinese, and Russians are scattered among the various lodges and hotels in the country before,
during, and after the games - and all will be watching and waiting on the others.Orgonise Africa, derived from Wilhelm Reich's popularization of orgone
energy and transmogrified by bad science and wishful thinking, is an effort by fanatics to push forward a plan to seed Africa with orgone, which they believe
will purify the continent, rid it of drought, poverty, and HIV/AIDS.To the north, Patriarche, a silverback mountain gorilla, is forced to share his habitat
with coltan miners led by General Le Grande, one of the Congo's many bloody warlords. The profits from the sale of coltan, so prized by electronics manufacturers,
help fuel the seemingly endless civil wars that plague that poor country.Game Ranger Sanderson of Chobe National Park finds a body. Tracking down the murderer
opens doors that lead her and Inspector Kgabo Modise first to evidence of local bribery, then to smuggling, and finally to what could well provoke an international
incident, if not for the shrewd action of Modise and Botswana's intelligence community.

[Eric_W]

ARC Netgalley

[Harlequin Books]

Miniseries: A Botswana Mystery

[Nancy]

Cliff trashed this book into file 13.