A South African crime boss institutes divorce proceedings against his wife who defends the action. Later, she is found shot dead in her apartment and the criminal husband charged with her murder. But have the police been too blinkered in their approach and too quick to conclude that the husband's criminal connections automatically make him the killer?
So starts a flying trip to New York by the notorious lawyer, Jack Delaney, to investigate the husband's mafia connections followed by a trip to a 'Big 5' Game Reserve in South Africa to investigate his criminal connections in the highly illegal, but lucrative, rhino horn and elephant tusk trade. While this shows the husband to be a most unsavoury character, does it make him a wife murderer? Why would the husband have started divorce proceedings and then killed his wife? If murder was on his mind, would it have not been simpler and cleaner for the wife to take a long, long vacation - mafia style?
The murder trial starts and after many twists and turns, the evidence presented often leaves the reader to wonder if the husband was the actual killer or if he hired the killer and colluded with him. The 'grande finale' comes during the trial with the unmasking of the murderer.