Found this book in the gift shop in Kruger National Park in South Africa and had to get it. Downloaded it onto my IPad in my Joburg hotel room and got reading straight away.

As a tense thriller, it hits the spot with some nice action pieces and lots of intrigue, but the big enjoyment was relating it back to my trip. A lot of the book is set in Kruger and after seeing the animals up close, they came to life on the page. References to such mundane details as closing times of the park and common South African phrases, such as bakkie for a ute, really pulled me in as it was all fresh in my mind.

That said, I'd pick up another Park thriller even if it was set elsewhere in Africa; he writes a tasty thriller.

And Park's an Aussie, icing on the cake. ( )

The cover art might scream ‘trashy dick fic!’ but don’t be mislead – Silent Predator is both well-constructed and exciting, and while author Tony Park is an Australian, he spends half the year in Africa becoming, like every convert, an expert on his new passion.

The book opens in London with Detective Sergeant Tom Furey hot on the trail of suspected terrorists but he is soon sent to South Africa to protect Britain’s Assistant Minister of Defence Robert Greeves, a notorious Africaphile; their stay at a private safari lodge is cut short though when Greeves is kidnapped.

Although he is suspended, Furey – together with his beautiful blonde counterpart Inspector Sannie van Rensburg – is soon in hot pursuit, following the trail through the Kruger Park then over the border into Mozambique and right to the shores of the Indian Ocean., ending with a dramatic twist on an island in Lake Malawi.

The story includes terrorism, murder, paedophilia, people trafficking, missing persons, kidnapping, betrayal, romance, friendship and courage: it’s not great literature but it is a great read, dominated by the enticing and seductive lead character, Africa herself ( )