Helpful Score: 5
I picked this book up on a whim at my local bookstore and I am so glad I did. I just love it. The main character is Jade and she is wonderful. She is strong, confident, funny and she doesn't really care what society expects her to be. This book is set in 1919 African so it has a little history. There is action, suspense, mystery, humor, and even a little romance. This book has it all.
Helpful Score: 2
Fantastic! A friend recommended this author, and after reading this one, I'm definitely going to read the rest of the series. Great, well-developed characters and an exciting plot line is enhanced by the beauty and treachery of the African landscape. Makes me want to go on safari!
Helpful Score: 1
Good book, interesting look at Africa, with a good story line and even some mystery.
Helpful Score: 1
Mark of the Lion (2006) introduces Jade del Cameron, an American ambulance driver in WWI who promises David Worthy, a dying British pilot, she will track down his brother and pass on a ring. But when Jade visits Mrs. Worthy in 1919, she is told that David was an only child. Jade guesses that the missing brother was born to another woman when David's father Gil Worthy was exploring in East Africa. The Worthy family solicitor confirms that Gil had two rings made, one for each of his sons, and that Gil returned to Africa in 1915 to try and track down his other son, dying in suspicious circumstances in a Nairobi hotel room before he could complete his search. With the solicitor's support, Jade accepts a job as a writer and photographer for The Traveler magazine, and requests an assignment in Nairobi, taking a crash course in Swahili during the trip. Jade's upbringing on a ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico, proves to be good preparation for life in colonial Africa since she is a crack shot and used to roughing it. While searching for David's brother Jade manages to kill a hyena, attract the attentions of a witch, and both charm and offend the colonial elite who find it difficult to accept that their time of power is drawing to an end. This debut novel is highly entertaining.
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/A_Authors/Arruda_Suzanne.html
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/A_Authors/Arruda_Suzanne.html
Wonderful escapism read. Beautiful descriptions of the landscape and animals of 1920's Africa. Plot has several unexpected twists and turns. While some of the minor and bit characters are as expected, the main characters are very well fleshed out, believable, and interesting. Certainly very well worth your time.
The subtitle to this book is "A Jade Del Cameron Mystery", and that it is. A little clunky at times, at others a little too simple, but the story is interesting enough. Not a book I'd go out and buy, but it passed the time.
In 1919, when most women only dream of adventure, Jade del Cameron lives it After growing up tough on a New Mexico ranch and driving an ambulance on the front lines of World War I, she can fire a rifle with deadly precision and stare down men maddened by shell shock. Still suffering trauma from the Great War, she sets off for Africa determined to fulfill a man's dying wish....
With his last breath, Jade's beloved David asked her to find the brother he only recently learned he had. All clues point to Jade to the East African city of Nairobi, where she soon has reason to believe that David's father was murdered.
With his last breath, Jade's beloved David asked her to find the brother he only recently learned he had. All clues point to Jade to the East African city of Nairobi, where she soon has reason to believe that David's father was murdered.
