Cocktails and Crime

It's "Bloody Book Week" in Joburg with a week long calendar of events, sponsored by Talk Radio 702, for mystery loving enthusiasts. The week includes book launches, interviews, talks, dinner parties, cocktail hours and a whiskey tasting. You can even go on an Agatha Christie-style "Murder on the Gautrain" excursion to Pretoria and be a part of a real mystery writer's chapter in a soon to be concluded novel! Along with a lineup of fiction writers, screenwriters and critics discussing the genre, there was one book talk that caught my attention.

Unfortunately it was about a non-fiction bloody book called Killing for Profit by Julian Rademeyer. An expose on the illegal rhino horn trade, Julian is an investigative journalist who chronicled the intricate and far-reaching drama and history behind this scourge. He was being interviewed by David O’Sullivan, the morning talk show personality on Talk Radio 702 and the venue was the local independent Novel Books bookstore in Bryanston. (Wow, they still have those in South Africa?)

I of course found the conversation incredibly interesting. Anti-rhino poaching has become my passion since I have come to South Africa. When I first got here and realized the state of the crisis, I was shocked. How did it get this bad and how has it remained increasingly so? I am hoping this book will give me some insight into the problem and maybe even some hope for an answer.

I have just recently been accepted into a volunteer program in a conservation area in the Eastern Cape. For two weeks in August I will assist with rhino monitoring and other conservation efforts. I am very excited and will be journaling throughout the entire experience. Not blogging since we will be internet-free! But afterwards, I will blog a synopsis or two. In the meantime I have some homework to do by reading Killing for Profit.