Colm Reid is an Irish journalist from the Irish Telegraph and a great one at that, but he's still waiting for THE story of his life. The latest story he is covering is about bears. Still, you, the reader, will think, "There are no bears in Ireland" Not now, but millions of years ago, they were prevalent. Still, sadly they became extinct around three thousand years ago due to habitat loss (forests were cut down to make way for growing crops and to graze cattle), hunting them to extinction.
After he published the story, his editor told him he loved it and that an opportunity had arisen to cover a story about the northern white rhino, which hadn't been seen since 2006, 10 years ago. It's his last chance to cover the story of his career, so he agrees. He's very excited, but the trip comes with conditions, he has to go alone (he's okay with that), he has 6 hours to catch the flight (that's a bit tight but workable), and lastly, it's at the Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. If his geography is correct, the DRC is a war-torn country with different factions trying to take control of the country.
He has minutes to decide and agrees, but has he made a mistake?
What follows is a brilliant story about corruption, greed, terrorists, and the main point of the story is that we are destroying Earth's wildlife for our gain.
There is plenty of action throughout. What I loved about the story was the courage of the rangers from the Garamba National Park, which with minimal resources, have the task of safeguarding the aminals from poachers hell-bent on killing the elephants and rhinos for their ivory to finance their corrupt ambitions.
We also meet other characters, Belgian journalist Fatou Ba, to cover the story. Jane, I compare to Bruce Willis, who is always ready for action, and OMG, there is plenty of action!!.
Anthony has created a world where it's out of the news or a recent documentary.
Initially, I gave it a 4* on Goodreads but changed it to 5 because it deserves it.
Many thanks to Rebecca from @HobeckBooks (which, by the way, is a small Family-run independent publisher but big in quality authors) for introducing me to the genre to which I'm not accustomed too).
About the Author
I was born in Bradford and grew up in West Yorkshire, variously in Cleckheaton, Scholes, Moorend, and Ilkley. Grim and dour and wild. But also magnificent and open and kind. Landscape, literature and a hint of mayhem rolled together from the start. For example, when I was at school my inspirational A-level English teacher, Gina Wild, took us on a field trip to Haworth. We were studying Wuthering Heights, and it was only just up the road, so why not? I remember two things about that trip. The first was getting a lift there with Gina and two other students and being late for the start of the talk she’d arranged. The second was turning back from the walk to Top Withens (the moor-top bothy that inspired the farm of Wuthering Heights) not because we were cold, tired, and put off by the wind and the rain, but because the pubs had opened and we were missing good drinking time. Ale in Yorkshire is very important.
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