Game Drive Book Tour with Marie Moore

 

 

Remember the first time you saw an elephant?  A real elephant?  Not a photograph of a elephant, not on television.  A real live elephant. Remember that?  Remember your first sight of a rhino? 

Unless you live in Africa, or another part of the world where elephants and rhinos exist in the wild, your first up-close sighting of the giant gray beasts was likely at a zoo. Mine was.  I still remember how huge the elephant looked to my four-year-old self.  My grandfather lifted me up so I could watch the big guy eat. I remember him picking up tiny bits of hay with his trunk.  I remember how he smelled. Soon, unless the current trend is reversed, a zoo may be the only place left for a child to see an elephant or a rhino. 

What?  Is there some terrible elephant scourge, some awful disease that is killing them?  No, as Christopher Joyce of NPR reported in March, 2013, the majority of them are shot. “There's always been ivory poaching in Africa, but after a ban in 1989, the trade diminished. Now, however, the numbers have exploded. Some 25,000 African elephants are being killed every year...only now have scientists figured out that more than half of them have died over the past decade.” 

The rhino toll is even worse. On April 9, Kruger National Park spokesperson William Mabasa predicted the loss of 1000 rhino by the end of 2013.  

The terrible scourge is us. 

In Game Drive, the second book in The Sidney Marsh Murder Mystery series, Sidney, a Mississippi-born, New York-based travel agent gets to know elephants and rhinos up-close and personal as she goes on safari near Kruger National Park with her best friend and fellow travel agent Jay Wilson. Their boss at Itchy Feet Travel has a new scheme to attract customers—safari tour packages. He sends Sidney and Jay on a familiarization trip to Cape Town and safari country to check out the accommodations and confirm that the experience lives up to the hype in the brochures. 

    Sidney looks forward to the deluxe trip and so does Jay, despite his deathly fear of animals, both wild and domesticated. Their experience will be far wilder than either could have imagined. First Sidney stumbles upon a suspicious rendezvous and possible murder scene in Cape Town. Then after Sidney’s pocket is picked on a cable-car ride up Table Mountain, she suspects that someone in their group is an imposter, a suspicion that is soon confirmed. At Leopard Dance—the luxury game lodge near Kruger National Park that serves as their base camp—one of the other agents on the “fam trip” turns up dead. 

    Before the trip, like most of us, Sidney was too busy in her daily life to give much thought to African wildlife.  But on safari, everything changes. 

    “A snuffling sound woke me just before morning, and I lay quietly in the splendor of my luxurious bed, trying to decide if it was just one of Jay’s exotic night sounds or a reason for alarm. I remained completely still, in the dark, listening.... 

The snuffling sound grew louder. I decided that the sound was headed our way and seemed to be coming from right outside of Hut No. 1, on the riverside. 

Louder. Closer. And closer still. 

Curiosity won out. I couldn’t stand it. I had to know what was out there.... 

The eastern sky was getting lighter, and a big bull elephant was standing just to one side of our deck. His trunk made a slurping sound as he drank from a little pool of water in the mostly dry riverbed. 

“Well, hello there, big boy,” I whispered. “Are you going to come see us every morning? You must like Hut No. 1.” 

Awed by his size and the delicacy of his movements, I watched him until he quietly moved off down the riverbed, sipping from the puddles, in the first gray light of dawn.... 

The monkeys fell suddenly silent, bringing me out of my reverie.  From up the riverbed, a beam of light from a flashlight appeared around the bend. I saw the lone figure of a man approaching...”. 

In Game Drive, Sidney and Jay soon discover that they have far more to fear from predatory humans than wild animals. 

As Sidney would tell you, the great advantage of working in the travel business is that you get to visit fantastic places you might not otherwise be able to afford. Africa is such a place, fascinating travelers—both the actual and the armchair kind. After visiting Cape Town, I decided that it was where Sidney and Jay should go next. 

 In my books I seek primarily to entertain, but at the same time to inform, in a small way, about the lot of God’s more vulnerable creatures. In Game Drive, Sidney is stirred, as we all must be, by the systematic decimation for profit of Africa’s rhino and elephant populations.  

For a fast buck. Really? 

Are we truly going to let that happen to our world, on our watch?  Really? 

 Will we someday tell our children’s children, “I once saw an elephant.  A real, live elephant,,,.”  

 

Synopsis:
Game Drive is a cozy mystery by Marie Moore about a New York-based travel agent on a research trip for her agency who suspects foul play after a colleague is killed in a tragic accident. Game Drive is the second book in a series featuring amateur sleuth Sidney Marsh. This time Sidney’s travels take her to Cape Town, South Africa, and a private game lodge near the Kruger National Park.

Sidney Marsh is a Mississippi-born, New York-based travel agent. She and her best friend and business partner, Jay Wilson, are struggling to remain standing in a world where the ground is shifting. Their boss at Itchy Feet Travel has a new scheme to attract customers—safari tour packages. He sends Sidney and Jay on a familiarization trip to Cape Town and safari country to check out the accommodations and confirm that the experience lives up to the hype in the brochures.

Sidney looks forward to the deluxe trip and so does Jay, despite his deathly fear of animals, both wild and domesticated. Their experience will be far wilder than either could have imagined. First Sidney stumbles upon a suspicious rendezvous and possible murder scene in Cape Town. After Sidney’s pocket is picked on a cable-car ride up Table Mountain, she suspects that someone in their group is an imposter, a suspicion that is soon confirmed. At Leopard Dance—the luxury game lodge near Kruger National Park that serves as their base camp—one of the other agents on the “fam trip” turns up dead.

Sidney carries on a risky flirtation with a handsome Afrikaner, who may or may not be the latest manifestation of the “Marsh Curse,” which seems to jinx her every relationship. And Sidney and Jay discover that they have far more to fear from predatory humans than wild animals.

 

 

 

BIO:   

Marie Moore married a lawyer in her Mississippi hometown, taught junior high science, raised a family, and worked for a small weekly newspaper—first as a writer and then as Managing Editor. Later, Marie opened and managed a retail travel agency, sailed on nineteen cruises, and visited over sixty countries.  

Game Drive (April, 2013, Camel Press) is the sequel to Marie’s first novel, Shore Excursion (April, 2012, Camel Press) which introduced amateur sleuth Sidney Marsh and The Sidney Marsh Murder Mystery Series.  In May, Marie will be a program panelist at the 25th Malice Domestic Mystery Conference in Bethesda, MD.  Marie is a member of Sisters in Crime. 

For more information, visit: www.MarieMooreMysteries.com. Marie’s books are in trade paperback and e-book in bookstores, on Amazon, and from Camel Press. www.camelpress.com. 
 

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There is a tour wide giveaway for Kindle books, a Kindle Touch and gift cards. There are four prize packages for authors Victoria Hamilton, Lucy Burdette, Billie Thomas, and Marie Moore.

The prizes are -

Prize 1 (US/Canada only)
* a Kindle Touch
* a $15 Amazon.com giftcard
Prize 2 (International)
* a Kindle copy of Topped Chef and Bowled Over
* a $15 Book Depository giftcard
Prize 3 (International)
* a Kindle copy of Murder on the First Day of Christmas & Game Drive
* a $15 Amazon.com giftcard
Prize 4 (US/Canada)
* your choice of a cozy mystery paperbacks (up to $25 in value)

To enter:
1. Fill in the form here.
2. There is no requirement to follow any of the blogs participating, but we hope you will support these amazing blogs by following them. They do a great job, many of whom host for us every month.
3. Giveaway ends on May 15, 2013 at midnight and the winners will be contacted via email.