Last Survivor

Initially I was not sure what to think about this novel. In the first chapter the reader is introduced to the Pretoria Cycad and Firearms Appreciation Society, a group of older people brought together by their love of cycads. Due to previous involvement with firearms they thought it would be amusing to include this in the name of their group.  Chapter two introduces us to Joanne Flack, a member of the Pretoria Cycad and Firearms Appreciation Society. While in London she is attacked by a man with two knives.Chapter three takes us to Mali in West Africa where Sonja Kurtz is risking her life on a CIA mission. Eventually all these disparate storylines begin to merge into a dangerous quest to discover the whereabouts of the last surviving femal Encephalartos woodii, a rare cycad, and the attempt to stop the smuggling of rare plants.

At times the reader may need to suspend belief and just go along for the ride in this action packed novel as valiant attempts are made to defeat evil. No doubt the author enjoyed creating this book.  The author also provides the reader with vivid descriptions of wildlife in the bushveld in Southern Africa, the threat of poaching not only to wildlife but also to plants plus descriptions of past and present conflicts in the region.

Tony Park is an Australian author who spends time each year in southern  Africa. Last Survivor is his seventeenth novel set in Africa and the fourth featuring Sonja Kurtz. In the acknowledgements at the end of the novel he mentions that in 2001 there really was an undercover operation to track the illegal smuggling of cycads.

Cycads - Britannica