Final Refuge: A Novel of Eco-Terrorism

The subtitle of Haley's third novel (after The Lions of Tsavo) may trigger alarm that its plot and characterization are subservient to preaching. Which is, unfortunately, precisely the case. What isn't the case is that the ``eco-terrorism'' here is-as the term normally implies-enacted by pro-nature ideologues; instead, Haley's villains are decidedly anti-conservationist. Ex-Jesuit seminarian Eric Jackson is about to open The Refuge, a huge zoo near Houston that will replicate the natural habitats of animals from around the world. After a pair of rhinos are killed in the San Antonio zoo for their horns-highly valued as aphrodisiacs in east Asia- Jackson realizes that his own large rhino collection is the target of a gang led by an unscrupulous Chinese, whose greed for animal bounty culminates in lethal midnight shootouts at The Refuge. Throughout, anecdotes, mostly horrific, about species preservation prove much more interesting than the plot that they stop dead from time to time. Haley's animals, too, are more engaging than his human characters, with the possible exceptions of the Chinese villain and a subsidiary scoundrel. Meanwhile, Jackson makes for an unusually goofy hero, part entrepreneur, part Frank Buck, part scientist and part St. Francis wannabe who says prayers in Latin. There's a vague sex/love triangle stuck into the plot, but erotica fans will be more intrigued by the several pages devoted to the masturbation of a rhinoceros. No doubt Haley means well by all this, but literate preservationists will be better off by rereading Romain Gary's The Roots of Heaven. (Oct.)