"In 1919, when most women only dream of adventure, Jade del Cameroon lives it. After growing up tough on a New Mexico ranch and driving a ambulance on the front lines of World War I, she can fire a rifle with deadly precision and stare down man maddened by shell shock. Still suffering trauma from the Great War, she sets off for Africa determined to fulfill a man's dying wish, never expecting to become involved in murder." "With his last breath, Jade's beloved David asked her to find the brother he only recently learned he had. All clues point Jade to the East African city of Nairobi, where David's father lost his life under mysterious circumstances while searching for an illegitimate son he had never acknowledged." "Soon Jade has reason to believe that David's father was murdered. What she discovers within the British colonial community and among the local tribespeople in the Kenyan capital suggests that something truly evil has been unleashed. The natives whisper about a laibon - a witch doctor - terrorizing the land with increasing frequency and deadly intent. They speak of being attacked by wild beasts that bear strange shaved patterns and bone beads in their fur - signs of animals being mystically guided by an avenging human." "In a land where ancient tribal traditions clash with the so-called civilization of unruly British expatriates, where frontier towns give way to majestic landscapes, where the sublime and the savage coexist on dangerous safaris, Jade must draw upon all her ingenuity and courage to unmask the truth, expose the killer ... and stay alive to fight another day."-JACKET. His heart pounding, the man scribbles the words in his notebook as fast as he can: “Woman dead in Highgate. Man in caped coat. Milky way and red streaks. I’m being followed.” Hours later, the man’s cold body lies in the city mortuary, alongside the woman he couldn’t save. And his sister, unconventional nurse Gemma Tate, tracks down troubled police inspector Sebastian Bell to unravel the truth. Sebastian has enough pressure to solve the murder of an aristocratic heiress without Gemma meddling in his case. But the cryptic sentences she brings him from her brother’s notebook could be a crucial lead. If only they knew what “milky way” meant. But as the trail of clues takes them away from the gilded drawing rooms of the nobility and into the dangerous slums of London, how far will their partnership be tested on the quest for justice, and will they both emerge unscathed? Fans of Andrea Penrose, Deanna Raybourn and Miss Scarlet and the Duke will be hooked on this intricate, compelling mystery set in Victorian London.

Not AR rated.