In Fhino We Trust is the first book I have read by this author.

The story unfolds as Parks Canada warden Jenny Willson has left Canada to join an American colleague on secondment to assist Namibian authorities trying to stem the loss of the country’s rhinos to illegal hunting. But the plan takes a dramatic turn when Willson finds herself in the crosshairs of a conspiracy involving wildlife poachers backed by a shadowy network of international buyers prepared to eliminate any obstacles in their way, including Willson and her new team.

Loved this book. Plenty of devious surprises and crackling suspense, along with interesting characters. Just the sort of book to cause a lack of sleep, but I won't complain! Highly recommended.

*This book was provided to me as an ARC at no charge in exchange for my honest review. My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to participate in this program.*

DISCLOSURE: I read this novel as an ARC and we both have Dundurn as our publisher.
I have been reading Butler's books since he came on the scene with his first, Full Curl. I couldn't wait to read In Rhino We Trust. I read it while flying to Namibia where it is set.
Jenny Wilson, his protagonist is a strong lead as a park ranger from Canada who is seconded to Namibia to train their rangers and observe their anti-poaching procedures. She is tough, resolute, and honest.
In this book, Jenny gets tangled up in the international poaching business and is beset with danger on all sides.
Butler writes a fast-paced, tense mystery that was carefully researched during his visits to Namibia.
Thoroughly satisfying read and highly recommended.

A brilliant very well researched novel on rhino poaching

Jenny Willson and her friend Tracy Brown have travelled to Namibia to help train game rangers gain better skills in their fight against poaching, especially rhinos. Jenny is hoping the experience will help her recover from the tragic loss of her mother and give herself time to consider whether she wants to return to work with the Parks Canada Board.

The pair have the opportunity of travelling to various lodges and game reserves before their real task of training future game wardens begins. It’s on the trip that she meets Danny Trang, a Canadian travel journalist. After her last disastrous encounter with a journalist, she’s very wary of his wish to be friends. Little does she realise how important he will become once she and her team start investigating the murder of a game ranger and the brutal killing of a rhino mother and death by the hunger of her calf.

I would spoil this review if I mentioned more of the storyline. What I can say that is that Dave Butler who says he’s only visited Namibia twice has absolutely captured the heart and soul of Namibia in this fast-paced thriller as Jenny and the team she’s trained, go about tracking down the perpetrators of the syndicate running the poaching and slaughter of rhinos for their keratin horns.

Very few authors managed to capture the spirit of a country but Dave Butler has. Namibia has a very interesting history and has seen some terrible conflicts in the past and yet in the short time since its independence from South African rule, it has managed to turn itself into a country which realises its future lies in tourism and conservation, meaning that laws protecting their wildlife are some of the most progressive in Africa. Butler, through Jenny’s secondment, manages not to just give us exceptionally well-drawn characters but the history of the country and vivid descriptions of the landscape.

I can’t find enough words to praise this novel. All I can say is “read this book! “

Rony

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Rhino poaching! Unfortunately there is a lot of money to be made from killing rhinos for their horns so greed rears its ugly head. How do you stop poaching when there are people both desperate enough and unscrupulous enough to become involved, willing to risk everything?

In this new mystery, the third in the series, Parks Canada warden Jenny Willson accepts a secondment to Namibia along with her friend Tracy Brown, a US Fish & Wildlife officer, to help train local officers and park rangers in ways to stop poachers. As they find themselves more deeply involved in the local situation, they begin trying to follow the links of the chain of supply, to ferret out who is involved all along that chain and how the horns eventually leave the country. But watch out--the unscrupulous will stop at nothing to keep their business running smoothly.

Jenny is smart, a great asset to this team, but her personal life is in disarray and she has trouble with trusting when it comes to matters of the heart. She's been burned before.

This mystery can be read as a stand alone, with the author filling in any details that are necessary for understanding the backstory. I learned so much about what is going on with the horn trade. I thought this was a very well-researched story.

I received an arc of this new mystery from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I have thoroughly enjoyed this series from the beginning and look forward to what comes next in Jenny Willson's life and career.

This is the third Jenny Willson book that I have read – and enjoyed. Jenny is still suffering from the physical and emotional trauma of her last investigation, and from her mother’s suicide, and she comes to Namibia with her American friend, Tracey Brown, to train up an anti-poaching investigative and enforcement team, and hoping that a fresh start will help to heal her wounds. All goes well in the initial training programme, and Jenny and Tracey end up with a highly competent team, mainly female plus K9 and handler, ready to take on the rhino poachers. Unfortunately, at this point, Tracey decides to leave for another Namibian project. Jenny feels abandoned and betrayed again.
While Jenny is an outstanding investigator and law enforcement officer, her interpersonal skills are definitely lacking. Her refusal to trust anyone (or even be moderately polite) threatens to alienate those she needs the most. Thankfully, others are much more forgiving and understanding. I particularly felt sorry for Danny Trang – a Canadian photographer of Vietnamese extraction – who has already had to endure considerable racism from Namibians, who see all Asians as ‘evil’, ‘predatory’ Chinese. He goes out of his way to help Jenny, and is, more often than not, mistrusted and abused for his assistance. I could understand why Jenny acted the way she did, but at times, I really did not like her.
When I first picked up the book, I was a little concerned that the setting in Namibian would not be as vivid as the previous books’ settings in Canadian National Parks. I needn’t have worried. Namibia and its people really come to life in this story, and you can almost feel you are there. Before reading this, I was only aware of the Namibian desert and the Skeleton Coast – but clearly Namibia has so much more to offer (and not just rhinos). If I could still travel, Namibia would now be on my ‘to-visit’ list.
While the focus of the book is on the prevention of rhino poaching, it also deals with the difficulties of wildlife conservation – balancing the needs of the local population and giving them a vested interest in preserving the animals with the demands of foreign tourists and investors. It also highlights the way in which foreign investment and aid is not always to the benefit of a poor African country. As the old saying goes ‘beggars cannot be choosers’ – and corruption, disregard for human rights and local laws, and outright criminality may be prices that are forced on the host nation. While the racism experienced by Danny cannot be defended, it can be understood given the attitude of some Chinese (and other Asian) visitors to Namibia.
This is a fast-paced, exciting and fascinating book, set in a world that not many of us will be familiar with – and has a very unexpected twist at the end. I highly recommend this and the other two Jenny Willson books.

Rating: 3.5 rounded up to 4 exotic stars

This is the third book in Dave Butler’s ‘Jenny Willson’ mystery series. I have not had a chance to read the first two books in the series. However, I have purchased them, and based on this book, I can’t wait to have some time to dive into the first two installments. Jenny Willson is a park ranger in the Canadian Rockies. Due to some tough months at home, she gladly accepted an offer to leave Canada for a little while. Jenny and her friend Tracy are in Namibia to help teach wildlife law enforcement techniques.

I learned so much about Namibia in this book. I loved that! Namibia is just north of South Africa, and has only been an independent country for about 30 years. It is trying to build a conservation ethic amongst the population in order to protect the wildlife and bolster its tourism economy. Unfortunately, rhinoceros horns and elephant tusks are still extremely valuable on the black market. Poachers are still willing to take the risk of killing these animals in order to earn more money than most of the population sees in a year.

Jenny is pulled into a murder mystery when Sam Mogotsi enlists her help. He has been arrested for the murder of his brother-in-law Chioto, and the illegal killing of a rhinoceros cow and her calf. Sam works as a guide at one of the tourist hotels, and while he used to be a poacher, he put that life behind him a decade ago. He now spends his time following and protecting the rhinoceros.

There are powerful forces working in the background against Sam and Jenny. There is a lot of money to be lost if poaching is in fact ended. Can Sam be exonerated? Can Jenny along with a female team of wildlife law enforcements officers bring the correct culprit to justice?

This is a fun mystery that delves deeply into the various tribes, and the geographical diversity in Namibia. I’m so glad that this series was recently recommended to me. I’d recommend this for readers who like a good mystery, and like to learn interesting facts about wildlife conservation and Namibia in the process. I found this book to be well worth my time.

‘Thank-You’ to NetGalley; the publisher, Dundurn Press; and the author, Dave Butler for providing a free e-ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Jenny Willson, a Parks Canada officer, has had a lot to deal with recently- including the suicide of her mother and being shot during an operation. (Don't worry- Butler does a good job of catching up those who haven't read the earlier books). She opts to take a time out and goes to Namibia with Tracey Brown, a US Fish and Wildlife officer, to work on rhino conservation. What they find, however, is murder, poaching, graft, corruption and threats to their team. This gives a good sense of the state of play with African wildlife; the poachers keep coming and the animals keep losing. And rangers lose too. In this case, there's a murder, and another ranger is accused but Jenny and her colleagues are certain that there's a more afoot. Danny Trang, a photojournalist, trickles under Jenny's exterior a bit. This has a good balance of Jenny's personal life and her professional commitment to wildlife. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I've been a fan of this series and I'm looking forward to the next one. Those who like mysteries in a natural setting will enjoy this.

After the traumatic end to her last case and the sudden suicide of her mother, Parks Canada warden Jenny Willson has taken a leave of absence to go on secondment in Namibia with a US Fish and Wildlife colleague. Jenny spends the first months training a group of wildlife officers. She then joins an elite team to stop the slaughter of rhinos to poachers and encounters an international conspiracy involving Asian backers and police corruption. With the help of a former poacher turned rhino ranger and a Canadian photojournalist named Danny Trang, Jenny works to set up a sting operation to catch the culprits red-handed.

Jenny and her team are threatened and attacked and quickly learn that this group is willing to do anything to prevent their investigation from succeeding. This was a fascinating and sad read about the plight of these endangered animals.

I received an eARC from Netgalley and Dundurn with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and provided this review.

This is the first book I read in this series and won't surely be the last.
It was an engrossing and entertaining read.
The cast of characters is fleshed out, the background vivid and fascinating, and the mystery kept me hooked till the end.
I look forward to reading other instalment in this series.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

4 stars for an entertaining mystery set in Namibia, Africa. Jenny Willson, a Canada National Park Warden, volunteers to go to Namibia to help train their park rangers/police officers in methods/techniques to stop poaching of endangered species, in particular rhinos. She is paired with a US Fish and Wildlife Officer, Tracy Brown, who recruited her for this assignment.. Jenny is recovering from her previous anti poaching operation, in which she was shot while working with Tracy to arrest a major poacher. At the end of this operation, her mother commits suicide, and Jenny blames herself.
This is all explained in book 2 of the series, [book:No Place for Wolverines|36652592] and I suggest that you read it first before reading this book. I have read books 1 and 2 in this series.
Jenny , Tracy and their Namibian colleagues uncover a poaching ring and some of the officers are attacked. They persevere and do arrest most of the poachers. My wife read this book before me and felt that Jenny's angst over her mother's suicide and being shot intruded too much on the plot. She also felt that the information on Conservation organizations in the book were too much. These two issues did not bother me and I enjoyed the book and recommend it to Nevada Barr/ Anna Pigeon fans.
Thank You Dave Butler and Dundurn for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.
#InRhinoWeTrust #NetGalley

In this third Jenny Willson thriller, Willson has accepted a short-term assignment that takes her out of the Canadian National Park system and into Namibia to assist in an effort to stop rhinoceros poaching. Namibia has an eco-tourism business based upon its wildlife and views poaching as not only morally wrong but also as economically dangerous. Jenny is part of an outside team invited to the country to train a new anti-poaching force while working alongside it to catch a recent rash of poachers. This turns out to be an international issue as well as a local one.

Just as she arrives, a park guide charged with protecting rhinos on conservation land is found dead near two rhinos, also dead. As she works with the new team on anti-poaching techniques, she finds herself pulled into the investigation of the guide's murder. During the course of both murder and poaching investigations, the reader finds out a great deal about the justice system in Namibia as well as the intricacies of an eco-based economy. The author describes the beauty of the stark land and provides a sense of rural village life. There is a great a deal of detail about the international rhino trade and conservation approaches provided through conversations between Jenny and an adventure reporter she befriends. The first half of the book is heavily dialogue-based as all of this information is detailed, and Butler's love of the Namibian landscape shines through.

About midway through the book, the poachers become active and the pace of the book picks up substantially. Suddenly, the book becomes hard to put down as Willson and the team she trained and now leads conduct a sting operation in an attempt to catch the poachers red-handed. As the suspense intensifies, we continue to learn about Namibia but now the plot takes center stage. The two main story lines merge, as murder and poaching become inextricably tied together.

There is a personal storyline for Jenny Willson as well, and she spends much of the book in something of a crisis over her professional and personal life. While the suspenseful aspects of the plot come to closure at the end of the book, her personal trials do not, leaving a variety of possible directions for the next book. It will be interesting to see where Dave Butler takes Jenny next.

This was unlike any other fictional mystery book that I have read this year. There are so many facts and realities woven into the tale, it is easy to forget the main protagonists (at least) are not real. It is also the third of a series I had never heard of or read before and despite that, I could keep up with the narrative because for the most part, Jenny Willson keeps reminding us (a couple of times more than required, but that did not change my opinion of the story itself). It might also have helped that Jenny moves to Namibia for the duration of the tale and is far away from her usual surroundings. I can recommend this as a starting point to others like me who have not read this series before. It does contain spoilers for the previous stories (or it felt that way, but I can be only sure of that when I get around to reading the first two books)

This is not a cozy, armchair mystery. It has nail-biting moments, life-threatening ones and a lot of current geopolitics and the ruminations on it by all the main characters. In short, it is a heavy read but not boring by any means, one just has to be prepared for it. Jenny Willson is training in a new course to help implement the new measures the local government is trying to carry out. It all comes down to reducing the poaching in the locality and help preserve the endangered species. She is part of a task force on the trail of the latest spree in the killing of Rhinos for their horns. She has a dedicated team to work through the problems and also delicately maintain local sensibilities (that is, making sure no one gets hurt-emotionally and physically). There are webs in place already from the long-standing tradition of poaching for these horns and it is hard to infiltrate the culprits' lairs but slowly but surely they work their way towards it.

The only weird thing about the entire book was the use of surnames and first names at different times, even in thought. Sometimes they referred to people with their last names, even if thinking back at a shared occasion and at others, with the first. I lost a little time trying to check if there was a pattern or hidden meaning to the switching between the usages but was unable to find any. That put me off my stride as did a few of the repetitions I mentioned earlier. Without those instances, this was a great book which makes you 'feel' even after it is over because it is bigger than us and bigger than just the one case that gets solved within its pages. I highly recommend those on the lookout for some serious mysteries set in a place they might not be familiar with.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is completely based on my own reading experience.

What would you do to save a species? Jenny & her friend Tracy have taken time away from lives to come to Namibia to use their knowledge and experience to help in the fight of poaching. But nothing is as it seems. Danny Trang has arrived in Namibia but he isn't having the best of luck everyone is rude and threatening and he doesn't know why. He is about to learn why the people don't want the Chinese in their country and no matter how much he tries to explain that he is Canadian it doesn't help. When he meets Jenny he knows that he has found someone that he can trust but will she be able to trust him as she has been badly burnt by a journalist before? Jenny is enjoying her time with the rest of the team and she is learning so much and she hopes that they will be able to make a difference so when she gets involved in helping a local ranger fight a murder charge things really change as she hopes that she can trust Sam and that he is telling the truth about the dead ranger and the rhino that was found nearby. But Sam isn't being completely honest as he knows that she won't help him anymore. So he tries to win her trust by taking part in a sting to catch buyers of rhino horn. Will Jenny and the rest of the team be able to find the killer and get some justice for the rhino cow & her calf? The fight to save the rhino is heating up and only by working with the locals can they have a chance but can they find someone to trust? A great read. Unfortunately, if things continue the way they are in Africa we will surely lose the rhino unless we all work together.

Book # 3 in the Jenny Wilson Mystery

Although part of a series this book stands very well by itself. Not having read the two first installments I found the author did a marvelous job situating his readers with small background snippets of whom and where his protagonist Parks Canada warden Jenny Wilson and secondary players come from. In this latest Jenny left Canada to join an American colleague in Namibian to assist the authorities in stopping the loss of rhinos to poaching.

Namibian is an important part of this story, its well-researched social and political climate at the forefront. The narrative is rich in knowledge of the place, its people and animals. All is said in a good pace with plenty of action. “In Rhino We Trust” is a plight of wildlife to be saved from those who are being supplied by international criminal gangs with equipment to track and kill them for their horns. The scarcity of rhinos today drives the price higher and higher, what an incentive for those wanting to pad their pockets at the expense of wildlife ….This story of an anti-poaching team who put their lives on the line to protect these animals is heartwarming. Mr. Butler in his tone shows the love he has for wildlife and has penned an original and suspenseful story populated with a strong cast of characters to tell us.

This fiction leaves a strong message behind its words….well-said

Butler has hit his stride in his 3rd Jenny Willson mystery. Seconded from her job with the Canadian Parks, Jenny travels to Namibia with an American agent on a short term assignment to train local game wardens in preventing poaching that has devastated wildlife populations. But Jenny is soon neck deep in actual enforcement as she works with Namibians to catch some major players. Still headstrong, but learning to work with her teammates, she is showing real signs of maturity. Butler, in addition to growing his main character, does a fantastic job of integrating the environment and wildlife into the novel. This is his best work yet and highly recommended for readers of CJ Box, Christine Carbo, and Paul Doiron

It can be difficult to find a fresh take in the mystery genre, but Dave Butler has done so with his Jenny Willson series. Jenny is a Canadian park warden with law enforcement responsibilities, and typically patrols in the Canadian Rockies In this, the third book in the series, Jenny is Namibia to assist with the fight against rhino poachers. Namibia is an important part of the story, and Butler does a good job of explaining the social and political climate as well as describing the scenery.

Jenny can be direct and bossy, slow to trust and quick to take offense, but she's aware of her personal shortcomings and is a likeable character. She is quickly involved in the dangerous chase of rhino poachers. Over the course of the story, Jenny contemplates a new job opportunity and the potential of romance. Suffice it to say, that while she wraps up the mystery of the stolen rhino horns, there is plenty of questions in her professional and personal life to ensure the survival of this series.

I enjoyed the book and recommend it for all those who like strong female protagonists. As for me, I'm planning to read the first two in this series!

A review will be posted on https://wordpress.com/view/abookandacuppaa.wordpress.com in October

Thank you NetGalley and Dundurn for the eARC.
This is the third book in the Jenny Willson series and it's another good one.
Warden and Investigator for Parks Canada, Jenny Willson, after a tough year, flies to Namibia to begin a stint with local wardens to learn about the problem of the poaching of rhinos, sharing her experiences in Canada of protecting wildlife.
The story starts with the find of a man's bones by his brother-in-law and good friend. Both worked as wardens fighting rhino poachers.
The plight of wildlife and the money made by the sale and smuggling horns and elephant tusks is staggering. It's actually quite depressing; it feels like there is no end in sight, but for the dedicated men and women who work tirelessly to stem the tide.
The descriptions of the landscape are breathtaking, Namibia sounds like a wonderful place to visit. There are many eco vacation camps which is helping as tourists come from all over the world and bring in money and work for the locals, proving that saving wildlife is a positive for this young country.
I enjoyed the book, but was saddened by the descriptions of the slaughter of these magnificent animals for medicine that is totally bogus. My main thought was: when will we ever learn?
Jenny's future is uncertain, she's a had a promising job offer in Canada - will she take it? Can't wait for her next adventure! Highly recommended!

I wish to thank NetGalley and Dundurn Press for the In Rhino We Trust in return for an honest review. I was delighted to receive a copy because the first two books were high on my list of favourite books read in 2018. I especially enjoyed this story, because of its vivid sense of place, the well-developed characters, its well-researched background of Namibia, its parks and animals, and its admirable conservation efforts. I found this suspenseful story most interesting as I was fortunate to actually observe a group of rhinos drinking at a waterhole one evening in Namibia. This was a thrill I will always remember.

In the first two books, we meet Jenny Wilson, a dedicated warden and investigator for Parks Canada. She was instrumental in the conservation of Bighorn Sheep and in saving Wolverine habitat in national parks around Banff and Jasper. This time we find Jenny in Namibia, involved in the work to stop rhino poaching. The name of the book refers to the efforts of Save the Rhino Trust Namibia, dedicated to finding successful ways to conserve these endangered animals while involving the local communities in their work.

I found the plot to be compelling and highly informative. Jenny is a relentless investigator, brave, and unshakable in her determination to stop those greedy, devious criminals who threaten wildlife in national parks. Her assignment in Namibia is to learn the situation there and to lend her experience to their wardens and also to learn from them. There is a situation of illegal poaching of rhinos for the wealth criminals receive for selling the horns to Asian countries to be used for unsubstantiated medicinal purposes. There has been a positive and admirable success within Namibia, but unfortunately, the dwindling practice still occurs although not as frequently.

Jenny assembles a team of well trained, formidable female investigators. By intelligent sleuthing and outstanding bravery, while placing themselves in life-threatening situations, they bring down a ring of ruthless poachers and smugglers. I can’t wait to read about Jenny Wilson’s next adventure. Thanks to the author, Dave Butler, for creating this unique and talented investigator.