Murder on Safari - Softcover

Huxley, Elspeth Joscelin Grant

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140011293 ISBN 13: 9780140011296

Publisher: Penguin Group USA, 1966

Synopsis

Lord and Lady Baradale, on a posh safari in Kenya, anticipate splendid photo trophies for their luxurious labors. But rather than collecting trophies, they gave some up.

When Lady Baradale's jewels are stolen, a young Canadian policeman, Vachell, is called in. He sets to work on the theft, but is interrupted by murder. Lady Baradale's body is discovered with a bullet hole in the skull. Every member of the hunting party is suspect.

"Elspeth Huxley does not rely for effect simply on the unusual nature of her Kenyan setting. She has woven a complicated web of clue and counter-clue, clever enough to entrance and entangle even the most experienced detective fan." (The Times, London)

About this title

From the Publisher:

8 1-hour cassettes

From Publishers Weekly:

Best known for The Flame Trees of Thika , Huxley also wrote three mysteries set in Africa, this one in 1938. The reissue shows its age, but there is excitement in events set afoot by wealthy colonizers at play in Kenya during the bad old days. "Great white hunter" Danny de Mare persuades CID Superintendent Vachell to join Lord and Lady Baradale's safari when someone steals the lady's jewels from the portable safe in her tent. Posing as an extra guide, Vachell observes members of the party closely, finding no clues although he has several suspects: a titled "pansy," Sir Gordon Catchpole, whose engagement to flighty Cara was arranged by the Lady Baradale, her stepmother; Cara's preferred lover, fired for his attentions to the girl. Even her father is under suspicion, but not lovely Chris Davis, attached to the safari as an aviator (a character clearly influenced by famous Beryl Markham). The narrative twists its way through murders, passed off as accidents, and other elongated incidents, to the rather vague resolution. The novel's main attractions are the vivid descriptions of the terrain and the author's prescient protest against the slaughter of wildlife for fun and profit.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Group USA
• Publication date: 1966
• ISBN 10: 0140011293
• ISBN 13: 9780140011296
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208