White Gold: A Catherine Sohon Elephant Mystery – Book 2 by Caitlin O’Connell

274 Pages
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Alibi, Alibi
Release Date: February 7, 2017

Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Poaching, Endangered Animals, China

Catherine Sohon has left Africa and is in Bejing. She is working with the Wildlife Investigation Agency. They are looking into the illegal activity of elephant poaching. She goes undercover through the market stalls and nightclubs looking for Nigel and the others behind the poaching. She uncovers something she did not expect a group of nightingale enthusiasts. When she spots Nigel haggling over a nightingale in a threatening manner, she is intrigued. What does the nightingale have to do with ivory trading?

The book has a fast pace, the characters are somewhat developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view. Catherine is a strong woman but sometimes I wonder what she is thinking of going into some of these situations. She is unarmed and at time unaware of the people and the circumstances. This is the follow up book to Ivory Ghosts. If you like mysteries with descriptive scenery, you will enjoy reading this book.

Catherine Sohon is one heck of a protagonist. This is fast paced and twisty thriller that is fine as a standalone. A good read.

The mystery itself in this book was fine, but the way the clues were laid made everything way too obvious, ruining any chance of the reader being surprised by the twists. None of the characters connected or conversed in realistic ways and many of their conflicts could have been easily resolved if they'd bothered to talk to each other for two minutes. The scenes involving elephants were well-written, which makes sense considering the author has real-life experience in that arena, but even those scenes started to feel a little preachy after a few pages.

White Gold is the second book in the Catherine Sohon Elephant Mysteries. Catherine has recently moved from Namibia to China in hopes of capturing, Nigel Lofty, a big time endangered animal smuggler (worst type of person in the world). With the help of her college roommate, Ling Ru who after college returned to China and became a customs agent. Catherine and Ling Ru find themselves in some pretty tight spots which they manage to find a way out off. The book brings to light how brutal the illegal animal trade is, at times it was not enjoyable reading about how we mutilate animals.

The best part of the book was the descriptions of the elephants and their interactions with one another and humans. Elephants are fascinating animals.

Excellent story of the illegal ivory trade. Often brutally graphic, the suspense if fever pitched and full of twisted plot lines. Catherine's friendship with the elephant Lu Lu is heartwarming and real. Betrayal and intrigue abound.

This book turned out to be a gritty,hard-core mystery,complete with language and situations I did not care to immerse myself in. Rather than finishing a book like this, when I stopped after several chapters, enough to know that this is not my my type of reading material.

A rather different read. I love elephants, so I picked up this book. It stands alone okay. It does bounce all over China, which I think the author might have been there from the writing. This book deals with the ivory trade, something that doesn't make as much sense in today's world as it did in the 30's or 40's when ivory *might* have been needed for something. The book can be a tiny bit dry in places, but in other ways it's like MacGyve​r. The main charactor see things and knows she will need them, almost subconsciously. I liked that.

My copy came from Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is left of my own free volition.

Wonderful and heart-breaking all at the same time. I shudder to think about the facts that are in this book, but it's wonderful that someone has put into a novel facts to wake people up to the horrors that are perpetrated on innocent animals.
I received this free from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.

An enthralling and absorbing about trafficking and preservation of the worlds wild life but predominantly elephants. A couple of love stories intertwined made the story one of non stop action. Loved every minute of the story.

The greed and ignorance of humans never ceases to shock.
Catherine Sohon is in Beijing, China trying to trace and capture Nigel Lofty; a notoriously unscrupulous ring leader of elephant poachers. He escaped from her in Namibia and she is determined to bring him to justice when he sells the ivory to his triad connections.
Her quest to get justice will put her in great danger and also make her question many of the people surrounding her who she is supposed to trust, including her boss, Craig.
Caitlin O'Connell is superbly qualified to tell this story about the slaughter of whole families of elephants as well as tigers, bears and even nightingales (used for smuggling diamonds). The descriptions of what the Chinese find attractive about certain parts of the animals and birds had me grinding my teeth in anger at the sheer greed and ignorance that has resulted in this diabolical wholesale destruction to the point of extinction that is taking place. Why more is not being done to educate people that these poor defenceless animals really don't possess the supposed healing powers also disturbs and baffles me. However, enough of my personal wish to pick up a gun and shoot every person involved in this wholesale destruction and more on my comments on the storyline!
I'm giving four stars because I feel that I've learnt so much about the operation of triads, illegal poaching and the ridiculous beliefs that people hold on the healing powers that certain animal parts have. However, I am hugely disappointed in the characters as I found them all so stilted and one dimensional and this spoilt the read for me. With her qualifications and work with elephants, I feel sure that she must have stories of events that are really happening which will shock more people into becoming involved in the fight to save wildlife from total annihilation.
Reading this book while being in South Africa has made me more aware of all the sanctuaries that I pass on my daily commute through the Garden Route as I travel with my daughter while she does her rounds teaching equitation. In just this tiny little section of the country, there is an elephant sanctuary, with its close neighbour a wildcat sanctuary (lions, cheetahs and leopards). There is also a giraffe sanctuary close by with a variety of buck also enjoying protection from poachers. Not even five kilometres in the opposite direction is the rapture sanctuary and snake park, trying to educate on how these also play a huge role in the environment. It makes me very sad to think that our next generation may grow up not knowing these magnificent animals in their true environments, but instead in area specifically set up to keep them from harm.
Treebeard
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

Confronting the Illegal Ivory Trade

Poaching elephants for their ivory is illegal in Asian countries, but with the upsurge in wealth in China the trade is flourishing. Catherine Sohon, in this second book in the series, is in China to try to capture Nigel Lofty, a major figure in the trade. Her first encounter with Nigel leaves her in the hospital, but when she teams up with her college roommate, Ling Ru, the pair uncover a smuggling ring dealing in not only Ivory, but exotic animals.

The best part of this book is the information about the illegal ivory trade and the trade in exotic animals. I also loved the descriptions of elephants in the wild. However, the writing in other parts of the book didn’t come up to the level of the descriptions. My major criticism was the use of dialog to lecture about the ivory trade. At one point, Ling Ru and Catherine are trying to sort out a shipment of exotic animals. There is ivory in the hold and a tiger on the loose, but Catherine still finds time for a lecture. That sort of data dump cuts into the action.

The book was fast paced, aside from the lectures, but some of the action seemed unrealistic. The story was based in modern China and Hong Kong, but some of the action scenes seemed pure fantasy.

I recommend the book if you love animals, particularly elephants. The mystery is interesting, but the animals are the major focus.

I received this book from Random House for this review.

A woman investigates ivory poaching in China, where it comes from and how it is being smuggled into China. She is working in assisting the preservation of wild elephants. Parts of the novel were, to me, pure chick lit, parts pure fantasy and the parts that dealt with the elephants were pure enjoyment and knowledge. They alone made the book worth reading. Thanks to Net Galley and Alibi for an ARC for an honest review

I do love books about animals and wild life and I learned much from this book about the illegal ivory trade and its brutality. The story is both exciting and interesting. Now I want to read her first book in this series

I found the first book in this series an enthralling read and jumped at the opportunity to read this, the sequel. Rarely does any author have such in depth knowledge of the subject matter, bringing her descriptions of people, places, animals and events vividly to life in the imagination of the reader. The first novel focused on event in the beautiful floodplains of Namibia but this one is based on Catherine moving to investigate the Chinese underworld where she’s endeavouring to capture the smuggler she’s tracked from Namibia, Nigel Lofty.

This time starting in the bustling city of Beijing, there are other dangerous wildlife encounters, a triad turf war, betrayal and dangers around every corner. It is, at times, horrendously gruesome as the brutal illegal animal trade is graphically portrayed. Throughout the story, the elephants are the true stars of this fast paced adventure. I do think it will be best appreciated by people who have read the first book, Ivory Ghosts, as it is assumed readers will know about aspects already encountered in that story and now followed through in this sequel. Discovering just who is trustworthy, trusting herself and her instincts as well as discovering more about the illicit wildlife trade, the political, economical and cultural aspects are all enthralling aspects in this very moving, informative and captivating story.

Many thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for gifting me a copy of this novel with no obligation. This is my honest review.

The second book in the Catherine Sohon series, wildlife biologist and fighter of poaching, Catherine hs left Nambia for China, still after the villain of the last book, Nigel Lofty and quickly becomes embroiled in a large trafficking investigation. She re-encounters her old college roommate, Ling Ru, now an agent with the Customs Department. It quickly becomes apparent that there is some high-level corruption in the case and Catherine isn't sure who she can trust.

This one picks up the action and pace and makes Catherine almost a spy or agent/operative in how she approaches this case which feels a bit different than the first book. There is less about the elephants--although the Chinese elephants certainly play a role and there were several times I had to put the book down due to the graphic scenes of animal cruelty. They aren't over-done or gratuitous but they are difficult to read and help make clear how despicable the practices around animal trade and trafficking are and how they need to be stopped. Riveting and hard to put down. Start with Ivory Ghosts--the first book.

2.5 stars
I thought the premise of this book sounded fascinating concerning the illegal ivory trade market between Africa and China. But the actual book didn't quite wow me. The writing seemed rushed. In other words, yes there was action but it never felt fully detailed. I felt I was being pushed along. Does that make sense? The plot is not always believable. If you are willing to suspend belief, you might like this. At times, it had a bit of an Indiana Jones feel to it.

Several scenes are exceedingly gruesome and not for the faint hearted. O’Connell makes sure you understand all the issues concerning the ivory trade, but at times it felt didactic.

There is a decent amount of character development. O’Connell slowly fleshes Catherine out. And Ling-Ru was also well developed.

I had not read the first book in this series and I felt the lapse. There's not a lot of background provided.

My thanks to netgalley and Alibi Books for an advance copy of this book.

I think Ms O'Connell's writing is too wordy. I will not review this online because I know people like these books, but really she could tighten the writing up a lot.

You can tell this author loves animals because the book really connects when she is writing about them. In particular, I enjoyed a scene midway through about an encounter with a tiger (great descriptions and action) as well as all of the scenes involving elephants, which taught me a lot about the ivory trade.

Unfortunately, this wasn't really a book about animals, it was about humans, and I just couldn't connect with them at all. For me, a lot of the dialogue felt inorganic--like one person was explaining something to another merely so things could be explained to the READER. I also felt like a lot of things in this book happened merely because something ELSE needed to happen later. In other words, actions didn't seem necessarily motivated by the character's personality or needs, but by the NARRATIVE'S needs. This was both on a large scale and scene by scene.

For example, at one point the lead character inexplicably picks up a ball of string and puts it in her pocket (does she collect string? does she suspect it will come in handy someday? We don't know.) But it's a good thing she does because she uses it a few minutes later to subdue a King Cobra. This kind of thing happened happened a lot, (e.g.. discussion of tea pots, a discussion of green teas) as well many mentions of things that didn't seem to serve the plot at all (e.g. many mentions of black toe nails, many mentions of her irritable bowels.) Ultimately all of this business proved distracting for me personally and made it hard for me to connect with the plot and characters. But after reading other reviews on Goodreads I see that I appear to be in the minority on that one.

Thank you.
Enjoyed it. Good read.
Will get copies for family and friends

I wasn't completely sure that I would enjoy reading a book about wildlife preservation, even though I am certainly an advocate of preserving all of the wild species, and eliminating the insane destruction of animals through poaching. And here's the "but." BUT, I was completely surprised. This a very well-written mystery out of deepest, darkest, Asia, and I hung on every word. I read practically non-stop, and completely enjoyed the story line, the characters, AND the twist at the end, which took me by surprise.... a GOOD thing! Congrats, Ms. O'Connell. I will, hereafter, read your other books as well. I would love to know if the bond with LuLu was from personal experience. Stunning.