Frederick Ramsay_Botswana Mystery 01

Leo Painter is the CEO of Earth Global, a large energy, mining and real-estate development firm. He and his party of company executives are traveling in Botswana to consult with the government of Botswana about accessing their extractable resources.From Publishers WeeklyThrough parallel stories, Ramsay's clever stand-alone shows the ruthlessness of the business and the animal worlds without resorting to gimmickry. Sekoa, an aging, mortally ill lion, is being forced out by younger rivals and hyenas on the Botswana plains. Meanwhile, Leo Painter, a Chicago energy czar with a bad heart, is up against ambitious employees and greedy relatives. While Sekoa stands up to his rivals, Painter and his entourage come to Botswana to build a resort/casino. Painter's callous nature has alienated him from his stepson, Bobby Griswold, who has “the brains of a guppy,” and Bobby's wife, Brenda, a former stripper. Painter's business plan would leave the Griswolds without any money, but not, the couple learns, if the old man dies first and his will remains intact. Ramsay (Impulse) matches keen characterizations with an obvious affection for Botswana, a complicated country that's more than Alexander McCall Smith's “quaint mysteries,” as one character observes. (Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistPredators come in all forms in this stand-alone mystery by the author of the Ike Schwartz series. When Leo Painter, CEO of Earth Global, travels to Botswana to assess that country’s natural resources, Painter’s COO schemes to acquire enough stock in the company to take command. Ramsay parallels the story of these corporate predators with that of the real thing: an ailing lion, called Sekoa by the Botswanese, who teeters on the edge of losing his pride to a younger, healthier challenger. Painter, even with heart disease, is healthier than the AIDS-inflicted Sekoa, yet the CEO faces multiple challengers, including his bumbling stepson, who is urged on by his slutty wife to claim his just deserts. The law of the jungle, as portrayed here, is more straightforward than human behavior, and animals are altogether more admirable than people. There’s nothing subtle about the analogy Ramsay draws between animal and human predators, but his descriptions of the vivid landscape and its inhabitants win the day. An unusual, sometimes clumsy, but finally engaging mystery. --Michele Leber