Die Again by Tess Gerritsen.

                Die Again by Tess Gerritsen.

         "The circle of life is also a circle of death."

         " Six years ago, in the bush, I found out what it's like to die. Don't ask me to die again?"

For those of you who like gory and gripping thrillers with plenty of action then this is for you. This is Gerritsen's eleventh book in the Rizzoli and Isles series. If you're a Gerritsen fan  then you'll be aware of the hit t.v. series Rizzoli and Isles starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.

We  begin with a two week safari in Okavango Delta, Botswana, the experience of a lifetime for a group of seven: Millie Jacobson, one of the narrators with boyfriend and writer Richard Renwick, creator of MI5 hero Jackman Tripp, Sylvia and Vivian from Cape Town, Elliot from America and the Matsunagas from Japan. Unfortunately, Millie has been forced to accompany Richard but it doesn't take long before she feels despondent when she realises that her relationship is dying a death. She had met him four years ago at a book signing event of "Kill Option." The safari was Richard's dream and Millie reluctantly agreed to tag along with her alpha male because she's a good sport. She is irritated, hungry, unable to sleep very well and seems to be constantly attacked by mosquitoes and feels neglected when her "clueless Londoner" takes a shine to the two girls from Cape Town.
"Just like the heroes he writes about in his novels, he's the man who takes charge and saves the day." Only it doesn't work out like this.

Clarence is the tracker. He hasn't worked with the bush guide before, Johnny Posthumus of Dutch ancestry who grew up in Africa. Clarence's cousin had been Johnny's regular tracker. In a dramatic opening, they wake to find a footprint and realise that a cat has intruded into their camp feet away from where they were sleeping in their tents. This proves an omen of things that will soon take us by storm. Johnny tells them that he won't kill any big cat: "They own this land, and we're the intruders here."

Terror strikes. Sylvia and Vivian found what was left of him-Clarence, the tracker. No footprints or animal tracks although a spotted hyena scat indicated that a hyena had fed on Clarence once he'd been killed. And with that, Johnny decides that the expedition is over and they should head back to safety, collecting the few remnants of bones and hair for Clarence's family to bury and packing up their tents and belongings.
"There's a sad burlap sack containing pitifully few bones and shreds of clothing and torn pieces of scalp, all the mortal remains we could find of our tracker Clarence." Richard wants to carry on but Johnny is unwilling because he tells them that he cannot guarantee their safety. Once in the truck, it is then that Johnny probably realises the truck has been tampered with and they are stranded by the river hoping that there will be a search party looking for them within the week. The truck has never broken down before.
Johnny shot and gutted an impala, working with "swift efficiency." The others, apart from Mrs Matsunaga, watch this "gruesome yet delicate" operation. 
"This is what we have come to Africa to witness: life and death in the bush." 
Millie knows that with Johnny around they will be fed well. She tells him she's frightened. He tells her she must be "watchful"rather than frightened. He confides in her that when he was young he collected snakes and was bitten by a viper but survived. He tells her he will help her find those ancient memories in her brain which will enable her to stay alive. The significance of this becomes apparent later.
Richard accuses Millie of suffering from khaki fever-when women fall into lust for their bush guides. She sees Richard now as a "stranger." 
"Perhaps he was always a stranger? Can you ever really know a person?"
Africa has changed her. Then more tragedy; Isao Matsunaga who was the second watch has vanished. Millie becomes Johnny's spotter, watching his back when they see the leopard watching them. They see Isao's lifeless body hanging over the branches. The leopard was stalking Millie and was getting ready to attack her when Johnny shot it dead. It had crushed Isao's throat, ripping through arteries and veins causing death by asphyxiation. "You choke on your own blood." The incident left Johnny "troubled and brooding." As for Millie she was ostracized. She became "the woman no one talks to, lying in a tent beside a woman who talks to no one."
Richard believes that they are the game and Johnny is hunting them one by one although Millie gives her vote to their bush guide: "They think I've gone to the dark side, and I'm Johnny's spy, when all I'm trying to do is figure out the most likely way for us to stay alive." The incident over the snake creates suspicion and Johnny is banished from the camp with Richard threatening to kill him if he tries to return to the camp. Gunshots are fired followed by more killings and Millie heads into the bush taking her life into her hands. What choice does she have?

The story moves on six years to Boston with Jane Rizzoli and partner Barry Frost investigating a gruesome murder of a taxidermist called Leon Gott. In the garage, his body was hanging from a ceiling hoist, squirming with maggots. His abdomen had been sliced open and his organs removed.

At the autopsy, Forensic Pathologist Maura Isles and Professor Guy Gibbeson from Harvard discover the internal organs of a cat which turns out to be a snow leopard from Suffolk Zoo. Throughout the course of this gripping novel the detectives have to track down Gott's killer which leads them to investigate those involved in the Botswana safari. Complex but satisfying and well worth a read.

REVIEW it by Carol Naylor.

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