THE LIONESS by Chris Bohjalian

Superstar actress Katie Barstow, along with her husband, her brother and his pregnant wife, and five other Hollywood A-listers, celebrate Katie’s wedding with a Serengeti safari in 1964.   However, we know from the start that not all will survive after Russian abductors raid their camp and take Katie and company hostage.  Bloodshed is immediate and shocking, and soon we learn who in the group is courageous and who is not.  The many varieties of wildlife provide a nice backdrop, but the hyenas, adders, and jackals are just as dangerous as the Russians.  In other words, escape into the wild is not a particularly desirable option.  I was not really drawn to any of these characters, but the fact that predators, both human and not, lurked everywhere made the setting quite a smart choice on the author’s part.  Although Katie is quite down to earth despite her fame, my favorite character was Carmen, self-anointed “smarty-pants” and Katie’s best friend.  Carmen is a well of knowledge that occasionally comes in handy in Africa but hasn’t enabled her to achieve the same status in Hollywood as Katie.  She is fully aware of both her merits and her shortcomings and is comfortable in her own skin.  Another intriguing character is Terrance Dutton, a Black actor whose kissing scene with Katie was cut from the final version of their movie together, but speculation lingers about their relationship off-screen.  I think his character’s role in this novel could have been broader, given the contrast between him—a successful Black American screen star—and the African porters and guides.  However, the author may have bitten off too many themes here, as is—Western colonialism, bigotry and homophobia in Hollywood, child abuse, killing of animals for trophies, and more.  This novel works pretty well as a thriller, but the mounting body count, although alarming, was not as distressing as it would have been if I had been more attached to the characters.