The Safari by Jacklyn Goldis (Release Date 5/20/25.)
Now here's a set up no mystery lover could possibly resist. A large dynastic family, filthy rich and nursing no end of deep dark secrets and hatreds, come together at their very own South African Safari lodge. Their trips into the bush are only for hunting the wild animals with cameras, but at least one person (or persons) among them has set their sights on human prey.
The Babel family, headed by iron-willed Matriarch Odelia, runs a fashion empire that's built its reputation on conservation and planet-saving. as it churns out top-of-the-line couture.. But there's a rumble in the jungle brewing inside their lush lodge surrounded by lions, elephants, leopards, monkeys, rhinos and hippos. Widowed Odelia has brought along her much younger boy-toy fiance Asher, himself a renowned designer for the company.. This doesn't sit well with her three grown children, Sam and twins Joshua and Bailey. Also in the Babel orbit are characters harboring their own long held set of scandals and secrets - Odile's life-long companion-secretary Gwen, safari guide Markus and lodge manager Violett.
We all know that sooner or later, this Tower of Babels (sorry, couldn't help myself) is going to crumble like a herd of elephants T-boned it. And how much a reader will enjoy this book comes down to when author Jacklyn Goldis will get down to business and start sprinkling the landscape with some dead bodies. As in....murder victims.
Prepare yourself.......cause the author forces you to spend an inordinate amount of eventless time with this bulging nest of unlikeable people until you're ready to cry out, "Enough already! We get it, they're all terrible, dysfunctional and suspicious......time for one of 'em to go belly up before I bail out!"
Here's the good news. When a murder and disappearances start poppin', the book goes into overdrive with more twists and reveals than the several barrels of monkeys hanging around the lodge. And these twists never stop coming at you right up to the very final pages.
I loved the exotic setting, which shows the author's enormous amount of research (and affection) for the magnificent wildlife and scenery of South Africa. For those willing to hang on (as I did) for the impressively large pile-up of genuine surprises, 'The Safari' finally does deliver a solid entertaining mystery read. Looking for a dangerous getaway? You can't beat a place with a river full of crocodiles and some predatory humans......
4 stars (****)
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