The Hunter by Tony Park

Publisher's Synopsis

Safari guide and private investigator Hudson Brand hunts people, not animals. He’s on the trail of Linley Brown who’s been named as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy.

Linley’s friend, Kate, supposedly died in a fiery car accident in Zimbabwe, but Kate’s sister wants to believe it is an elaborate fraud.

South African detective Sannie van Rensburg is also looking for Linley, as well as a serial killer who has been murdering prostitutes on Sannie’s watch. Top of her list of suspects is Hudson Brand.

Sannie and Hudson cross paths and swords as they track the elusive Linley from South Africa and Zimbabwe to the wilds of Kenya’s Masai Mara game reserve.

Excerpt

Captain Sannie van Rensburg sat opposite Hudson Brand in the small interview room in the Skukuza police station, at Number 1 Leopard Street. The building was near the post office, on the staff village side of the fence that separated the administrative area from Skukuza Rest Camp, the largest camp in the Kruger Park.

‘Nervous?’ Sannie asked him.

He stared back at her. She remembered the first time she had interviewed him, four years earlier, while the FIFA World Cup was still in full swing. Given the euphoria and hype of the event, the news media had barely reported the case of the prostitute who had been raped and murdered. Sannie had picked up Brand in the Kruger Park, where he’d been driving a group of British soccer fans. Brand had been angry when she had shown up at Lower Sabie Rest Camp, where he and his clients were having brunch. He had tried to tell her he couldn’t leave his tourists stranded.

‘A woman has been killed,’ Mavis had yelled at him.

Sannie had laid a hand on her young partner’s arm and gently remonstrated with her afterwards about making a scene in front of people, but Sannie had brooked no protest from Brand. He’d called Tracey Mahoneyand she had sent another guide into the park. The Brits had seemed content enough to sit on the deck at the Lower Sabie restaurant drinking beers at eleven in the morning until their replacement guide arrived. Sannie and Mavis had driven to the same station where they were now, with Brand in the car.

‘What’s this about?’ he’d asked, and she could smell the stale alcohol on his breath across the same interview table where he sat now, in the police station. His eyes had been bloodshot then, his skin paler than its normal coffee-coloured hue. She thought he could be handsome if he wasn’t so hungover.

‘Nandi Mnisi.’

‘Who?’

He’d seemed genuinely confused but, Sannie had reflected at the time, a killer didn’t need to know the name of his victim, and as Nandi had been a working girl she had probably used an alias.

‘The prostitute you were seen dancing with last night, in a pub in Nelspruit.’

My Review of The Hunter by Tony Park

The third book in the Sannie van Rensberg series, The Hunter spreads itself from the Kruger National Park in South Africa to the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. Tony Park’s intimate knowledge of his setting is evident and helps to make you feel as though you’re right there as a part of the safari. This is a swiftly moving crime novel that combines the wonders of Africa’s most amazing animals with the questionable ethics of some of the humans who live with them.

The main character is safari guide Hudson Brand (also appears in Red Earth and The Cull) who supplements his guide work with some private investigator work on behalf of a British backer. Although he prefers guiding tourists through the Kruger National Park, highlighting the incredible flora and fauna living there, the pay is far more lucrative in chasing down criminals and despite his hesitancy in taking up the PI role, he agrees to investigate what appears to be a possible life insurance scam. 

Linley Brown is a thief and has been working a 2-woman scam that has enabled them to rob houses that are listed for sale. She’s also named as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy for her friend who had recently died in a car accident, an accident in which Linley herself was also involved. Brand wants to speak to her to determine whether the insurance payout is legit or not.

Running in parallel is a cold-case investigation being performed by Captain Sannie van Rensberg. It’s a murder case where the prime suspect at the time was Hudson Brand. Although she’s not convinced that Brand was responsible, he knew the woman and danced with on the night of her death and there’s been no suggestion of any other potential suspect. 

While Brand is working chasing down details about the potential insurance scam, his name once again crosses van Rensberg’s desk and picks up his trail again. The fact that missed calls from him have shown up on Linley Brown’s phone, now in the hands of the police, piques her interest further.

From safari guide trips in South Africa and Zimbabwe to a pair of female thieves in Johannesburg and a life insurance fraud investigation, The Hunter is quite a sprawling story that covers a lot of ground. And somewhere in the background is the ongoing cold case murder of a prostitute that’s being investigated by Sannie van Rensburg, its presence being felt intermittently through the ongoing action. Although there’s a lot going on it never loses momentum and there’s the added drawcard of the full descriptions of the surrounding landscape to capture the imagination plus the ever-present majesty of the passing wildlife.

Hudson Brand is an interesting character who is a competent guide, a doggedly determined private investigator and a ladies man who gets more than his fair share of action. There’s little doubt he’s a morally decent guy, but not above breaking the rules, jumping the queue when it helps him serve his higher purposes.

I once again enjoyed my guided tour around the game parks of South Africa and Zimbabwe courtesy of Tony Park’s wonderfully descriptive prose. The action continued to be delivered thick and fast and, with at least a double-barrelled twist delivered towards the end, there was a lot to appreciate with the way the various investigations were resolved.