Red Earth by Tony Park

Publisher's Synopsis

An assassination. A stolen baby. A race to the death.

Durban, South Africa, a car is hijacked. Suzanne Fessey fights back and kills one thief but the other, wounded, escapes with her baby on board.

In pursuit of the missing vehicle and baby are helicopter tracker pilot Nia Carras from the air, and Mike Dunn, a nearby wildlife researcher, from the ground.

But South Africa's police have bigger problems: a bomb has gone off in Durban, killing the visiting American Ambassador, and chaos has descended on Kwa-Zulu Natal.

As the missing baby is tracked through the wild game reserves from Zululand to Zimbabwe, Mike and Nia come to realise that the war on terror has invaded their part of the world.

My Review of Red Earth by Tony Park

Another fast paced thriller set in South Africa that’s notable for both the breakneck action that takes place from the first page and the complete way in which the reader is transported by the richly described landscape. Red Earth features a deceptively complex plot superbly handled by the deft hand of Tony Park.

It all starts with a car hijacking by a bunch of local hoods in Durban, but there are a couple of complications for the thieves. The first is the baby that’s still in the car. The second is that the baby’s mother is part of a terrorist cell and has no compunction in killing her enemies.

Meanwhile Mike Dunn, a wildlife researcher who specializes in vultures, has been called out to investigate a group of dead vultures that have been poisoned after feasting on a poisoned carcass. Poachers are the culprits and we’re given an insight into one of the scourges of Africa, a real problem that continues to plague the continent today. With the help of helicopter tracker pilot Nia Carras he quickly ascertains that poachers are working the area and are still somewhere close by.

While on the call out his path crosses with the stolen car drama that has been playing out. It becomes apparent that there’s a lot more to the story than merely a stolen car and in no time flat the stakes are elevated to extremely high as a desperate chase from Durban to the Zimbabwe border ensues.

What first appears as though the child’s mother is attempting to retrieve her baby with the help of a few heavily armed men, becomes a series of full on attacking raids. The armed response is totally out of proportion with an attempt to retrieve a missing child.

Making an appearance in the chase is Jed Banks who has featured in Zambezi and Scent of Fear. Banks is a CIA agent working in South Africa and, although he appears to be an ally to Mike Dunn and his friends, he’s ultimately a spook and that creates a definite element of doubt when it comes to his trustworthiness. When the action really starts to ramp up ex Australian SAS officer Shane Castle (Safari, The Pride) also makes an appearance to lend a much-needed hand.

Through the wildlife research expert who serves as the story’s protagonist, there’s quite a bit of interesting information that’s provided about the importance of vultures in contributing to the health of all African wildlife. The birds are often the overlooked scavengers of the landscape but you get a far broader appreciation of their role in the life cycle. Tony Park hits the right balance of providing information without impinging on the flow of the story which serves to enrich the book greatly, giving it even greater depth.

Having never been to Africa, I have no idea how accurate Tony Park’s portrayal of the place is, but both the dialogue and the vivid descriptions of the wildlife in their natural habitat strike me as authentic. It’s vivid, evocative and filled with the movement and dangerous grace of the animals we come to expect from the continent. It certainly has the effect of driving a desire to visit the place and experience the beauty and wonders that are so well described amid the bullets, bombs and terrorist activities that have ensured this action thriller is captivating on so many levels.

Just one final thing, I’ve noticed that the book is billed as being part of the Sannie van Rensburg series but the detective doesn’t appear anywhere in this book’s proceedings. It’s possible that the appearance of CIA agent Jed Banks qualifies it as being part of a broader universe of somewhat related books, but I certainly wouldn’t place it as a part of the series. Definitely read this as a stand alone novel.