Jackal's Dance

Admittedly I picked up this book because I had very few options of what to read at the time. Possibly I enjoyed it as much as I did because at the time I was actually in Africa (Zambia to be exact). This of course made the situations brought up all the more relevant to me. Each character that Ms Harper wove into the story was someone I felt on a particular level I could empathise with. It also made the situations they were in clearly understandable. The book is set in a game park well away from any areas of civilisation. The first half of the book is basically concerned with giving the readers the characters backgrounds ( a eccentric professor and his students from Pretoria University of a field trip, the game rangers, lodge manager and his wife and a variety of guests) and then bringing them in all together, normally I would have felt that the book was dragging on while I waited for the action to happen, however this was not the case. Each person she brought into the book was such interest to me that I honestly didn't care that I had spent had half the book becoming aquainted with them. When I think back it is amazing how many characters she included, and strangely each one seems as interesting and understandable as the next. On face value this is no more than a situation drama but it was much more... significant. Ms Harper shows both the good and bad sides of the human character and social, mental and phisical handicaps that people have and can survive through I would highly recommend anyone to read this book, and any others of hers.