Blood of the Dragon Trees by Nik Morton.

 The opening chapter " Bitter and Twisted " (nicknames given to two of the crime specialists) gives the reader a sickening insight into illegal immigration and people smuggling. Set in Tenerife. The first victim, Rafi, bled to death. Seventeen African illegal immigrants between the ages of eighteen and thirty had just arrived on the island. Rafi was "one of our men" and had been planted amongst the men in order to attempt to crack a major people smuggling ring from the inside.

"He felt like a farm animal up for sale-or slaughter." Dramatic irony. His knee cap is shattered, his hand cut off ("too smooth") and stuck in his mouth as a warning to the police and guardia civil.

The action moves to Los Cristianos where we meet Lieutenant Vargas and protagonist Andrew Kirby who works for CITES-Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species such as tigers, leopards, rhinos and walruses. They are carrying out surveillance of forty-four African illegal immigrants being helped ashore after making a seven hundred mile sea journey to Tenerife. We are told that seven died before reaching the island.

Our second protagonist is Laura Reid who works for Don Alonso who owns a banana plantation, two hotels and four nightclubs (brothels). She becomes infatuated with Alonso's brother Felipe who is in a sexual relationship with Dolores Blanco (Lola), a 27 year old dangerous woman who uses men and gets rid of them when they are no longer useful to her. She thrives on taking risks, loves power and control. Trigger happy although not always accurate when it comes to the kill. "A dangerous woman."

Kirby is on a "fact-finding mission." He works with Jalbala Emchata and African American. Jalbala agrees to a substitution with one of the illegal immigrants to find evidence of people smuggling as Rafi was meant to do knowing how risky an operation it is. Kirky is able to track Jalbala to the northern part of the island and when it becomes dangerous, Jalbala manages to escape.

The visit of Felipe, Laura and Alonso's children to Mount Teide reaches a climax and Laura finds herself in a life-threatening situation with Kirby the only person she can trust. The action is fast-paced and the car chase in La Gomera is very exciting and frightening.

All of the bad guys receive their come uppance by the end the surprise at the end is revealing who El Jefe was, the boss who wore the Zorro mask to keep his identity hidden and there's a happy ever after ending for Laura who has survived the unexpected.



Copyright 2023. C.L.Naylor.

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