The Delta is the 7th fiction novel by Tony Park. Once again set in Africa, the main character this time is a female mercenary, Sonja Kurtz. After an attempt to assassinate the President of Zimbabwe goes wrong, Sonja escapes to Botswana. There she intends to look up her first love, Stirling Smith, at the safari lodge he still manages. Against her better judgement, her boss, Martin Steele, involves her in a plot to help the Caprivi Liberation Army and to blow up the newly-constructed Okavango Dam which appears to be destroying the Okavango Delta. Throw into the mix American actor Coyote Sam Chapman and his World Wildlife film crew, and you have a great story.

I was interested to read and review this book for several reasons. I have read other books by Park, but the main characters have always been men, so I was interested to see how he dealt with a woman in that spot (very well!). I was also interested because it was set in Botswana. I am a very big fan of a particular series by a male author, also set in Botswana, where the main character is also a woman. Alexander McCall-Smith manages to portray Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi so well in his No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series that readers could be forgiven for thinking the author was female. This book, however, is a world away from that series!

Parks dialogue is authentic, the descriptions are highly evocative, the plot has plenty of twists and turns, and the characters are quite believable, although many are not what they first seem. There are some delightful turns of phrase. Park even manages to have the reader sympathetic with a hired assassin! There is lots of action, quite a bit of violence and an exciting finish with a laugh-out-loud last line. Parks first-hand knowledge of Africa is evident in every line of text and his love of the African landscape and many of her people is very obvious. Unlike James Pattersons superficial offering, Cross Country, Tony Parks books make you want to go to Africa to experience it for yourself. I am looking forward to his next work, African Dawn.