Natural Enemies (First Printing)

International ecology-terrorists are murdering government officials in Kenya, saying they want to "protect" the elephant herds. Swept into the investigation are Sam Hawthorne, an American journalist, and Maya Saito, a dedicated scientist who studies animal behavior. Former lovers, Sam and Maya have been separated by both their ambitions and different cultures.
When James Wangai, an unorthodox detective obsessed with the case, identifies the killers and begins tracking them down. Sam and Maya join forces with him and the three embark on a relentless pursuit of the terrorists. Thrown back together by events, the former lovers find their unorthodox love affair rekindled and struggle to resist its destructive attraction. This action-filled novel stampedes through the African wilderness to the metropolis of Nairobi, from unspoiled natural habitats to a world of greed, revenge, and overpowering love.

A Turner Tomorrow Award runner-up, Cameron 's first novel lays out a complex, timely story with dexterity. The plot successfully incorporates zoology, a murder mystery and African politics. As the government of Kenya reconsiders its ban of the ivory trade, the most outspoken opponent of legalization--David Kariuki, head of the Kenya Wildlife Services--is brutally silenced when he and his wife are assassinated in Tsavo National Park, a wildlife preserve. Their bodies are found by American reporter Sam Hawthorne. Accused of the murder, Hawthorne is eventually contacted by the real killers, who claim to be members of an environmental terrorist group called the Enemies of Man. Their mission: to attack other members of the Wildlife Service, including Hawthorne's ex-lover Maya Saito, who is conducting research on elephant communication. Cameron, who has worked with an elephant research team in Kenya, moves with assurance from one point of view to another, all while developing believable characters and maintaining an unobtrusive narrative voice. She knows how to take the reader to unexpected places en route to an unforeseen destination.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An American reporter attaches himself to the testy Kenyan policeman working to solve a gory murder discovered by the journalist. In Cameron's clever first novel, everything has to do with ivory and greed. Sam Hawthorne's trip through a game park on his way to cover a rising Kenyan insurgency ends abruptly when he stops to help stranded motorists and finds them all either dead or dying. The travelers were Game Department official David Kariuki, his wife, and his driver. Sam frantically transports the fading Mrs. Kariuki to the nearest camp, but he's too late. He's also charged with murder. It is Hawthorne's bad luck that the first representative of the government on the scene is one of the most cynical of a thoroughly corrupt lot; it is his good luck that the official wrap-up gets handed to senior detective James Wangai, who is not only competent but, mirabile dictu, incorruptible. Wangai, who likes Hawthorne not at all, can't ignore Hawthorne's carefully annotated account of the discovery of the corpses and finds it thoroughly improbable that Hawthorne would have gone out of his way to announce the discovery of the bodies if he were the villain he's made out to be. Wangai begins to call in debts all around the city of Mombasa and discovers rather quickly that the murders have something to do with the growing trade in ivory, which, although banned by the Western World, is still very much in demand in Asia. It is giving nothing away to say that the murderer is a rather nervous Chinese woman, and it is a pleasure to say that Hawthorne's estranged lady friend, a stunning Masai elephant scientist, helps solve everything without ever getting too preachy about her fascinating experiments. Nicely done eco-thriller in a fascinating African setting. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.