White Bone

May 2, 2016
In Pearson’s stirring fourth thriller featuring Rutherford Risk agents Grace Chu and John Knox (after 2014’s The Red Room), Graham Winston, a British client of Rutherford Risk, sends Chu to Kenya to investigate the theft of a large quantity of measles vaccine that he donated to a clinic. When Knox receives a coded text from Chu indicating that she’s in trouble, he heads to Kenya, where he encounters rampant corruption among local officials and police, ruthless gangs of poachers (smuggling elephant ivory and rhino horn), and vigilante game protectors. Meanwhile, someone attacks Chu, drugs her, and dumps her in bush country, where her presumed death will appear accidental. In his search for Chu, to whom he’s grown increasingly close, Knox has only questionable allies such as Bishoppe, an irrepressible youth who latched on to him upon his arrival at the Nairobi airport. Amid all the turmoil, Pearson highlights the very real threat of extinction faced by Kenya’s magnificent wildlife. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House.

May 15, 2016
The improbable stars of Rutherford Risk tangle with murderous ivory poachers and warring local cops, rangers, and strongmen in Nairobi and the even wilder Kenyan countryside. Nobody ever told Grace Chu that the only field even less exciting than insurance was accounting. Now she's flown to Kenya in search of a missing $1 million belonging to Rutherford client Graham Winston and she's disappeared herself, setting hearts aflutter back in England--especially that of John Knox, the independent contractor whose earlier adventures with Grace (The Red Room, 2014, etc.) have never quite blossomed into love. Following Grace's trail to Nairobi, Knox promptly runs afoul of the authorities and is soon sought for killing a police officer. His only allies are incorruptible cop Kanika Alkinyi, conservation activist Travis Brantingham, and Bishoppe, the enterprising 14-year-old to whom he unwillingly entrusts his security and his life. Grace, who's unmasked a gigantic swindle by dauntingly influential Xin Ha, of Asian Container Consolidated, won't be easy to find because she's been abandoned in the bush, far from help or civilization, by Assim Guuleed's band of poachers, who want her death to look like an accident--unless of course they change their minds and decide to retrieve her once more. Law enforcement hunts Knox, Knox hunts Grace, Guuleed hunts Grace, Grace searches for rescuers and strategies to save herself despite her waning energies and mounting injuries, and in the background, everyone involved searches for elephants to poach or protect. All this would all seem overcomplicated and pointless if canny Pearson didn't equip each of the parties with unruffled self-conviction and a grab bag of unexpected resources. This crackling adventure doubles as a survival guide for your next trip to the striking, endangered landscape of East Africa.

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May 1, 2016
When John Knox (The Red Room, 2014) receives a disturbing cryptic message from Grace Chu, his frequent partner in missions for Rutherford Risk, he heads for Kenya. In Nairobi, he finds that Grace has been missing for days. Knox is certain that Grace, an expert forensic accountant and hacker, was outed as she traced missing money linked to stolen vaccines. It doesn't bode well that John is trailed by state operatives, and when he traces Grace's investigation from Nairobi's posh hotels to Kibera's slums, he finds links to ivory poaching and Somali terrorist groups. Meanwhile, Grace has been left for dead in the bush and is using her Red Army training, lessons from her Masai guide, and newfound feral instincts to survive. Series fans will appreciate the deeper exploration of John's and Grace's characters as they reconcile their feelings for each other. Another perfectly calibrated installment in Pearson's thriller world tour (with earlier stops in Shanghai, Amsterdam, and Istanbul); puzzling clues and immersive, full-sensory descriptions of Kenya balance cutthroat international criminal networks and teeth-clenching firefights.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

February 15, 2016

In the next "Risk Agent" novel, military contractor John Knox rushes to Kenya when partner Grace Chu texts that her cover has been blown as she investigates the disappearance of one million euros' worth of AIDS vaccine. Pearson backed up his plot twist with a research trip to Africa; look for this title at ALA annual in Orlando, FL.

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