Tyger! Tyger!
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- ¥550
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- ¥550
発行者による作品情報
"A pleasure to read....Hoyt offers a fascinating guided tour of the Asian black market in bones and other parts of endangered species."—The Washington Post
In the forests of the world, the mighty tiger is disappearing. A symbol of virility and power, its bones are a principal ingredient in traditional homeopathic medicines—and worth hundreds of dollars per pound on the Asian black market. The latest threat to these magnificent creatures is a well-organized profiteering ring that is trying to corner the market on tiger parts by systematically exterminating all wild tigers.
Western diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions have failed laughably against simple human greed and indifference. Bribery and corruption are rampant, leaving CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) desperately fighting for a lost cause.
But when the law falls short of justice, there are men like James Burlane, of Mixed Enterprises, a former CIA agent who specializes in delicate international cases. Following leads from Germany all the way to the Philippines, Burlane finds he is not just up against poachers. A killer of women stalks the night, with a twisted fire in his eyes, sensuously painting his naked victims in the buff-orange and luscious black stripes of the tiger before his dread hand seizes the knife.
"Hoyt has a fresh, invigorating style that grabs the reader immediately. He is a master."—The New York Times
"[Tyger! Tyger!] divides the world into predators and prey, into those who eat and those who go hungry. The raffish story pricks our consciences about issues for which there may be no solution but compassion—and curbing our appetites."—Portland Oregonian
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mixing environmentalism and political chicanery with an uninspired murder mystery, Hoyt sends the redoubtable James Burlane on a veritable world tour to Germany, Africa, India, Siberia and the Far East in search of the buyers of poached tigers, who sell the cats' bones at extravagant profit for use in traditional Chinese remedies. Meanwhile, a German detective, Hermann Iversen, is tracking an international serial killer who paints his female victims with tiger stripes before he kills them. Before these two plot lines converge in the Philippines, Burlane, hired by a consortium of environmental groups to make a dent in the tiger trade, must sort his way though a duplicitous cast of poachers, environmentalists and local hustlers; at the same time, the serial killer's body count grows. While Hoyt's prose is deft and dark-humored, his plotting and pacing are off. He switches venues too often, and both the murders and the resolution have a by-the-numbers feel. Despite its charms, this yarn is more housecat than tiger, and doesn't burn as bright as most of Burlane's other, more dangerous and more intriguing, adventures.
