


The poaching of ivory from African elephants, driven by insatiable demand from mainland China, fuels constant blood and slaughter. Corruption isn’t a “problem” in Kenya, it’s the way of doing business. Knox must locate her overseas handlers, convince them of the threat, and then attempt to retrace the well-hidden steps of a woman who had been attempting to determine how one million euros’ worth of AIDS vaccine disappeared, all while eluding angry poachers on a parallel trail. When ex–military contractor John Knox receives a text from partner Grace Chu warning that she fears her cover may have been blown while on assignment, he jumps into action. John Knox and Grace Chu, the incomparable duo of the Risk Agent novels, team up again in the latest international thrill ride from New York Times–bestselling author Ridley Pearson.


It also wisely reconfigures the personal relationships among the three central characters, which bodes well for their future adventures in this long-running series (Middle ofNowhere, The Pied Piper). Jance), Pearson makes the most of its creepy-crawly atmosphere in a gripping thriller whose solid plotting pulls all of Daphne''s, LaMoia''s, and Boldt''s cases together. While Seattle''s Underground has been the setting for several mysteries by other authors (Earl Emerson, J.A. But Lou''s too busy with his own cases to brood over John and Daphne: the recent disappearances of two local women, and the death of Billy Chen, the nephew of Mama Lu, an old friend and a powerful figure in Seattle''s Chinese community, which appeared to be an accident but turns out to have been murder.The only thing the disappearances and murder have in common is location all three victims were last seen in a part of downtown built over the Underground, a dark and dangerous warren of buildings abandoned after the fire that leveled Seattle more than a hundred years ago. She''s frightened enough to move in with Detective John LaMoia, a development that doesn''t exactly thrill Lou Boldt, their boss and Daphne''sex-lover. Seattle police psychologist Daphne Mathews has her hands full with a pregnant, addicted, runaway teenager, a murder victim''s brother whose strange behavior unnerves her, and a deputy sheriff she once treated who''s now stalking her.
