Author Victoria Tait gave me a review copy of her most recent mystery, Tusk Justice, in advance of publication. Yet it turned out that I couldn't fit it in until September was nearly ending. So this is a great deal closer to the October 9th release date than I originally intended. I downloaded my copy via Story Origin. I had already reviewed A Fowl Murder, the first novel in the Kenya Kanga series on this blog here though I was more interested in Tusk Justice and wanted to read it first. It turned out that there was necessary character background in A Fowl Murder. So I'm now glad that I read it first. My previous knowledge of the protagonist of this series informs my review of Tusk Justice below.
I felt that A Fowl Murder prioritized characterization, but Tusk Justice seemed more plot centered. There was always something happening and the murder occurred early in the course of the narrative. This case didn't awaken memories of earlier experiences for protagonist Rose Hardie. So she was primarily focused on the present in which she had to care for her sick and disabled husband, her veterinary practice and the investigation of both thefts and murder at a resort hotel. Rose's general helpfulness in this novel shows us why she is so widely beloved in her community.
There was relatively little about elephants in Tusk Justice. The book opened with Rose trying to save the life of an elephant calf, and the victim was publishing a book about African elephants. The content of the book isn't really described, however. Readers who are interested in fiction centrally dealing with elephants should read Jodi Picoult's novella, "Larger Than Life" which I reviewed here.
The resolution was somewhat unexpected. It wasn't totally out of left field, but the killer wasn't someone that I was thinking about as a suspect. So I'd call this a good mystery in which the reader won't easily guess whodunit.
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