Akimbo and the Elephants (1990) is the first installment in the beloved Akimbo series, which follows a brave ten-year-old boy living on a large wildlife game reserve in Africa.
Plot Overview
The Setting: Akimbo lives on the edge of a vast African game preserve where his father works as the head ranger to protect wild animals.
The Conflict: Illegal ivory poachers are killing the grown elephants for their valuable tusks, leaving the helpless young calves behind to perish.
The Turning Point: After coming across the devastating sight of a mother elephant killed by poachers, Akimbo becomes determined to stop them.
The Plan: Realizing the reserve is too massive for the rangers to police effectively, Akimbo hatches a dangerous plan to go undercover, posing as an elephant hunter to infiltrate the poachers’ network.
Smart dialogue. Interesting characters. And humour.
In Legal Tender, maverick civil rights lawyer Benedetta “Bennie” Rosato is wrongly accused of murder – and goes on the run to prove her innocence and find the real killer.
Publishers Weekly awarded it a “star” and raved that “Scottoline’s rambunctious legal thriller may change the way readers think about lawyers. Bennie, a delightful heroine, deserves an encore; and, again, Scottoline merits a big round of applause.”
The ending is super entertaining — and as highly improbable as any legal thriller you’ve ever read. 😀
Dubrovnik, Croatia, is now one of the most overtouristed cities in Europe, with visitors outnumbering permanent residents by a staggering ratio of up to 36 to 1.
Still … it’s fantastic.
I crossed the border to nearby Kotor, Montenegro, hoping it would be Dubrovnik light.
I found Kotor just as majestic. BETTER for hiking:
A cozy mystery novel continues the heartwarming and slow-paced adventures of Botswana’s premier female private investigator.
The Missing American: Her primary case involves searching for a young American man who mysteriously vanished into the African plains ten years prior.
The Wayward Wife: She tracks a local man’s wife to determine why she remains away from home for long stretches each day.
The Unscrupulous Maid: An administrative plotline unfolds involving a deceitful maid working for her fiancé, which ultimately ends in a prison sentence for the culprit
The residents of Alaska’s largest national park are devastated by the passing of 87-year-old Old Sam Dementieff, a beloved community patriarch and Kate’s uncle.
The Inheritance: Sam leaves his entire estate to Kate, along with a cryptic, one-sentence letter instructing her to “find my father”.
The Mystery: Sam’s father was an outsider who vanished decades ago, taking a priceless tribal artifact—a Russian icon—with him.
The Danger: Within days of launching her investigation, Kate is threatened by unknown entities who are tracking her every move.
King Tomislav Square greets visitors across from the railway station. This is the Art pavilion.
I walked the Green Horseshoe from here. A U-shaped ribbon of parks, botanical gardens, and fountains in the Lower Town. All that green space is useful as the rest of the city is filled with second hand smoke. About 38% of the adult population of Croatia is addicted. Many of those are chain smokers.
Croatia officially declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991. This split led to the Croatian War of Independence, which lasted from 1991 to 1995 as the country fought to secure its sovereign borders.
Since that time, the coastal cities have become BIG tourist destinations.
But the inland capital, Zagreb, is often just a transit hub.
It does have its charms.
The historic buildings are impressive.
Statues are dumb …
… but I like taking photos of them, anyway.
Jogging the streets early morning, you are bound to stumble upon something interesting.
There are pretty spots. Rarely crowded.
When I had 2 nights off, I caught the bus out to nearby Samobor for hiking. Small town Croatia is definitely more relaxing than the BIG SMOKE ➙ Zagreb.
Rick McCharles 