Safari

Stanley Hastings on safari? I don't think so. Neither did Stanley, until Alice's small inheritance—coupled with scrimping on a few luxuries like food and rent—allowed them to book a group trip to Zambia. Now the New York PI is hiking with lions, canoeing with hippos, and having close encounters with elephants and giraffes.

It's a dangerous safari. The leader is a reckless, gun-ho, great white hunter who delights in leaping from the jeep with a hearty, "Come on, gang, let's see where this lion is going!" And a series of bizarre accidents quickly dwindles the group's numbers. Why was the guide's young spotter foolish enough to walk under a sausage fruit tree . . . just as one of the huge sausage fruits fell? How did the leaves of a poisonous plant wind up in a tourist's salad? Are these really accidents?

A stabbing tips the scale. It's murder, and the only policeman in a hundred miles is a park ranger (whose only murder case was that of an ivory poacher shot dead in plain sight). It's up to Stanley to crack the case . . . if he can just avoid being eaten by a lion.