Kidnapped on Safari

Lurking under the generic title of Riva’s third Mbano and Pero thriller (after 2016’s The Berlin Package) is a solid, if somewhat plodding, yarn of intrigue and derring-do. A routine wildlife photo shoot headed by safari organizer Pero Baltazar in Kenya is interrupted by news that Ube, the favorite nephew of Pero’s best friend, Mbuno, master hunter from the Liangulu tribe, has been abducted by mysterious armed strangers in Tanzania. Pero and Mbuno travel to Tanzania, where they succeed in rescuing Ube from a criminal organization that’s producing and smuggling huge amounts of cocaine. They also discover that some of the group’s members belong to Boko Haram, who are holding kidnapped schoolgirls. The tension rises as Pero and Mbuno feel morally compelled to rescue the schoolgirls, even as they blunder into a thicket of multinational deceit, an impending coup d’état, and ambushes. Complex, believable action, including a breakneck ride through the jungle on a hijacked train, helps compensate for the flat prose. (Jan.)