So, after all is said and done I stuck it out and finished Suzanne Arruda's Mark of the Lion. After dragging my feet I ended up enjoying it and was even a little sad when I turned the last page. It's a nice, breezy sort of read, and was just perfect for the weekend actually. I do still have reservations about various aspects of the story--it felt like a first mystery and it seemed as though the author was laying the groundwork for stories to come, which often means there's lots of additional information to sort through to get things going (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). Some of the characters felt a little flat and I think the plot relied too much on coincidences, as well the resolution of the mystery might raise a few eyebrows with some readers. I had the twist figured out well ahead of time, so was just curious to see how the murderer would be caught. But criticisms aside (and hopefully I don't sound too harsh), I liked Jade del Cameron and her friends and found the exotic setting and time period fascinating.
Jade is the real draw of the story, especially if you like independent minded and intelligent, and in this case fearless, heroines. Raised on a ranch outside of Cimarron, New Mexico Jade is used to rough conditions (you have to love a woman who will swear--"spit fire and save matches!") and from an early age learned how to handle herself in a male environment. She's a crack shot and handy with a toolbox. She volunteered to drive ambulances in France after the Great War broke out and carries with her mental scars from the war and the horrible things she saw. She is unconventional, but considering where she started and where she ends up (the American west and the African bush), she can get away with it. Thanks to her Spanish ancestry her olive coloring causes the occasional stare, but perhaps the fact she wears her black hair short and slightly unruly and likes to go about in jodhpurs has something to do with it. It is 1919 after all.
During the war romance blossomed with an RAF pilot, but his early death meant their relationship was cruelly cut short. Before he died he made Jade promise to find his brother, which sounds reasonable until she discovers David had only recently learned of his existence. With only a set of rings and the knowledge the brother was born in East Africa to go on, Jade has her work cut out for her. Like so many men of the period, David's father had gone to Africa to make his fortune but fathered a son there unbeknownst to his family in England. Only a packet of papers along with a map remains, and as David's father died under questionable circumstances there's no one to turn to for information. Unfortunately the war began before David had a chance to undertake the search himself. So now it falls on Jade's shoulders and it's one she doesn' t take lightly.
After the war Jade's work for a travel magazine means she can write as well as begin her search for David's brother and look into their father's suspicious death. Colonial East Africa is an interesting place and Jade is soon befriended by a young British couple who have emigrated to Nairobi to start a coffee bean plantation. There's a stark contrast between the natives and how they live and what they believe and the British expatriate community. Whereas the Colonials will always come up with a reasonable and rational way of explaining things, the various African tribes are not afraid to blame strange occurrences and unexplained deaths on witchcraft. There is fear that a laibon--a witch doctor--has set his sights upon some in the community and when Jade shoots a hyena, what we might think of as a witch's familiar, she's thought to be in danger, too.
Mark of the Lion is not a traditional mystery, though in a way it is a cozy mystery. You could almost consider it a locked room mystery as the climax comes when Jade and a group of friends and locals go on safari that's been arranged as part of her writing assignment. It's more than likely that the murderer will be one amongst the party. Really this is as much an adventure story as a murder mystery. You get a sense of what it must have been like to live there in the 1920s. The land is equally beautiful and dangerous, so it's not strange for people to carry their rifles about with them and Jade quickly learns to be on the lookout for twitching ears in the long grass as an unexpected run in with a lion might happen if caught unaware.
I suspect this is going to be another case of a mystery series I follow more for the characters and sense of place than for the detective work that goes on, which is just fine. Mark of the Lion was an entertaining comfort read and I do plan on picking up the next book in the series, Stalking the Ivory, at some point (I very optimistically had the first three books on my shelves expecting to like the series). However I've just started reading Elizabeth George's Careless in Red, which got very mixed reviews, though I'm keeping an open mind and so far she has me turning pages in much curiosity. She has a new book coming out this month, Body of Death, so I thought I had better get reading so I could catch up. The Lynley series is one of the few that I've followed from the very beginning. So I've gone from Colonial East Africa to contemporary Cornwall in just a couple of days. Variety is good.