Elephant Play

"Elephant Play" rips you out of your chair and across the plains, deserts and thick, hot brush of Africa leaving in its wake the decimated, rotting carcasses of elephant and man To think you're undertaking a nice comfortable read when you first pick up Elephant Play is your first mistake and lulls you into a false sense of normalcy. All too quickly, you'll find yourself wondering when you left sanity behind and where this horrifying ride will take you in the end. Getting up close and personal with elephant poachers is no pretty thing. Ryals expert imagery may just make you vomit your lunch if you're not careful. This novel takes you on a journey into madness entwined with a look into the gruesome and brutal ivory trade. Born in the poorest part of America our diabolic narrator is driven by a ghastly sense of helpless futility coupled with a compulsive criminality that keeps his chance at fame in sight. It's a measure of the authors' skill that we live through that hideous dream and emerge from it illuminated. Or bewildered. Or diabolically amused.