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Review by Linda Harmon
In 1989, Theodore Taylor wrote an
award-winning young-adult novel, "Sniper," about 15-year-old Ben
Jepson and the big cats of Los Coyotes Preserve, a refuge for big
cats near Los Angeles. "Lord of the Kill" is the sequel to "Sniper."
Dr. and Mrs. Peter Jepson, Ben's
parents, were in India to write and photograph a National Geographic
story about Bengal tiger poachers, leaving 16-year-old Ben Jepson in
charge of Los Coyotes. Around 3 a.m. a human body was dumped into
Number Twelve, the home of two black-spotted jaguars. At 6 a.m. Ben
began his inspection of the 28 individual cat compounds. He had an
uncomfortable feeling all morning, and there was an eerie silence at
the preserve. When he reached Number Twelve he saw the dried blood
around the jaguars' mouths and pieces of torn green cloth. In the
pieces of cloth was something that resembled a human corpse. Ben
immediately called Deputy Sheriff Harry Metcalf.
Dr. Peter Jepson was a well-known,
extremely controversial animal-rights activist. Ben knew that his
father had many enemies. Los Coyotes had had its share of vandalism
but never a murder.
A month earlier Ben had traveled with
his father to Washington, D.C., when Dr. Jepson spoke before the
House Judiciary Committee about the killing of exotic animals for
sport. Canned-hunt ranches were big business and he asked for a
federal law to put a stop to it. After the recess, he was approached
and threatened by a man named W. Billy Caspar with "United
Sportsmen, Inc." embroidered on his jacket lapel. Caspar told Jepson
that he had been asking for trouble for a long time and that he
might get it soon.
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this review]
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 Dr. Jepson also made enemies of a
Chinese crime society called the Triads. They originated in
17th-century mainland China and were heavily involved in the Chinese
medicine trade. They had tigers slaughtered solely for the purpose
of reducing their body parts for medicine. There were large gangs of
Triads in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Dr. Jepson
asked Congress to help him stop the senseless killing of tigers and
put these people behind bars. In the fall, he had tipped off customs
in San Francisco that a large shipment of tiger medicines would
arrive in San Francisco. This shipment was worth $2,700,000, and two
Triads were arrested.
To complicate matters even more, Ben
was unable to reach his parents in India and there was some
speculation that they may have been kidnapped or even murdered. Ben
started receiving threatening phone calls, and his grandmother
pressured him to leave Los Coyotes and move to Los Angeles with her.
One of the Los Coyotes staff members mysteriously disappeared. In
spite of all of this, Ben refused to leave and was even more
determined to handle the situation.
The story ends with some questions
answered but many left unanswered. The book will interest readers
who enjoy a good mystery as well as those interested in
animal-rights issues. This book is recommended for readers in sixth
through ninth grades.
For more
information about this and other books, please visit the library at
725 Pekin St. or call (217) 732-8878.
[Linda Harmon,
Lincoln
Public Library District]
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