The Rhino Conspiracy

In the last decade over 6,000 rhinos have been killed in South Africa. Relentless poaching for their horns has led to a catastrophic fall in black rhino numbers. Meanwhile a corrupt South African government turns a blind eye to the international trade in rhino horn. This is the background to Peter Hain's brilliantly pacey and timely thriller. Battling to defend the dwindling rhino population, a veteran freedom fighter is forced to break his lifetime loyalty to the ANC as he confronts corruption at the very highest level. The stakes are high. Can the country's ancient rhino herd be saved from extinction by state-sponsored poaching? Has Mandela's 'rainbow nation' been irretrievably betrayed by political corruption and cronyism?

Leading politician and anti-apartheid campaigner turns the spotlight on to Elephant poaching in South Africa. Gripping and pacey this is an epic tale of corruption, collusion and courage. Having thwarted murderous poachers in The Rhino Conspiracy, the Veteran, Thandi and Mkhize are back in a new fight – battling to save elephant herds from being callously killed for their ivory, whilst trying to block wholesale political corruption and money laundering in contemporary South Africa. Will diminishing elephant numbers be reversed? Will the forces of good triumph over the vicious looters? Can the annual trillion-dollar money laundering trade by brought to heel by a brave whistle blower? Peter Hain's gripping second thriller builds to a dramatic climax, the action switching from wildlife to politics, from bushveld to city, from high finance to poaching. A vivid and gripping journey into the competing worlds of activism and corruption.

From South Africa to Zanzibar, from Kenya to Britain, activists are battling to save lion prides, today more threatened by extinction than rhinos and elephants, as a result of illegal wildlife trading. Having thwarted murderous poachers in The Elephant Conspiracy, the Veteran, Thandi and Mkhize are back battling to save lion prides from being killed for their claws, teeth and bones. As the demand for lion parts soars, impoverished local communities are being incentivised to poach, and the fight against this illegal plunder becomes ever more vicious. Struggling to defeat the international criminal syndicate responsible for poaching, the team find themselves embroiled in mafia-style smuggling, illicit night flights, tense shoot-outs, and an encounter with a protégé of Vladimir Putin. Gripping and pacey, grounded in real-life experience, and endorsed by global conservationists. 'Brilliant, part crime thriller and part political manifesto'. Book of the Week The Sun 'A brilliant thriller' Georgina Godwin Monocle 'Thrilling'. The Belfast Telegraph 'Gripping, tense and timely' Alan Johnson MP 'Another fantastic wildlife corruption thriller full of geo-political intrigue and suspense'. Charlie Mayhew, Founder CEO of Tusk

The aggressive poaching of rhinos needs to be countered with equal aggression. So argued Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, the founder president of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), at a 1987 meeting with John Hanks, conservation expert and WWF’s head in Africa. The result was Operation Lock, a secret initiative funded by Prince Bernhard and staffed by former SAS operatives. Operation Lock set up headquarters in Johannesburg and extended its reach into neighbouring states: Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, Swaziland and Mozambique. Its operatives planned to train game rangers, to pose as rhino horn traders in order to entrap buyers, and to expose the kingpins who were driving the trade. It was a controversial approach, all the more because it was working within apartheid South Africa in the late 1980s. When the existence of the project was finally leaked, WWF denied any involvement, and John Hanks took the fall. In Operation Lock and the War on Rhino Poaching, John Hanks finally tells the story of these explosive events from 25 years ago. As a leading international authority on conservation, he also deals with the scourge of rhino poaching up to the present, and gives powerful and controversial criticism of some of the current policies to curb poaching.

The Routledge Handbook of Crime Fiction and Ecology is the first comprehensive examination of crime fiction and ecocriticism. Across 33 innovative chapters from leading international scholars, this Handbook considers an emergent field of contemporary crime narratives that are actively responding to a diverse assemblage of global environmental concerns, whilst also opening up ‘classic’ crime fictions and writers to new ecocritical perspectives. Rigorously engaged with cutting-edge critical trends, it places the familiar staples of crime fiction scholarship – from thematic to formal approaches – in conversation with a number of urgent ecological theories and ideas, covering subjects such as environmental security, environmental justice, slow violence, ecofeminism and animal studies. The Routledge Handbook of Crime Fiction and Ecology is an essential introduction to this new and dynamic research field for both students and scholars alike.

Collects Amazing Spider-Man (2015) #19-24; The Clone Conspiracy #1-5; The Clone Conspiracy: Omega; Silk (2015B) #14-17; Prowler (2016) 1-5; material from Free Comic Book Day 2016 (Captain America) #1. Amidst a gauntlet of his deadliest rogues, an old foe returns to the fore. Loved ones lost are dead no more as Peter Parker plunges headlong into THE CLONE CONSPIRACY - a blockbuster event series from A-List creators Dan Slott and Jim Cheung! Prepare yourself for THE Spidey story of 2016 as the writer who brought you Spider-Verse, Superior Spider-Man and Spider-Island brings you the next defining chapter in the wallcrawler's life! The identity of the man in the red suit has been revealed. The Jackal has returned, more driven and determined than ever. He's off ered Spidey's greatest rogues a chance to reunite with their loved ones in exchange for loyalty. But to what end? With the Rhino, the Lizard, Electro and even Doctor Octopus at his side, things are looking bleak. But who else from Spider-Man's past has reappeared?!