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'Lord of the Kill'    Send a link to a friend

[JULY 16, 2003]  "Lord of the Kill" by Theodore Taylor. The Blue Sky Press, 2002, 246 pages.

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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Lord Of The KillDr. 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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