All aboard Jaclyn Goldis’ safari tour, where you’ll witness a murder plot unfold right before your eyes — up close and personal! Along the journey, you can expect to see sibling rivalries, corrupt billionaires, and devious revenge-seekers galore. Keep your eyes peeled, because the beauty of this one is in the details — and if you lose focus for even a second, you might just miss a crucial piece of the puzzle. So if you’re ready for the challenge, buckle up, and let’s dive in!
Synopsis
Odelia Babel, CEO of an uber-successful sustainable fashion business, is about to marry the designer of her luxury clothing line, Asher Bach — a man close to half her age. This will be her second marriage, and her adult children — Joshua, Sam, and Bailey — are none too pleased about it. Along with her daughter-in-law, granddaughter, and assistant/best friend, Odelia spirits her kids and soon-to-be husband away on a celebratory safari at Leopard Sands in South Africa. The Babel family has been vacationing here for years, and their history with the land runs deep — deeper than many of them would like to remember.
Despite the picturesque game drives and nighttime bonfires, tensions run high among the group, threatening to spoil Odelia’s happy moment. Then, the morning after a blowout fight with Sam, mere hours before the wedding is set to commence, Odelia is found dead. Murdered. All signs point to Sam as the prime suspect, but he claims to have an irrefutable alibi: He was with his twin sister, Bailey, at the time of death. The only problem? Bailey is missing.
As accusations fly, it soon becomes clear that whoever the killer is, they’re not quite done yet. At Leopard Sands, predators stalk their prey in the vicious cycle of life and death — and this predator has just set their sights on the rest of the Babels.
A Mind-Blowing Murder Mystery
‘…You have to protect yourself, as a woman in South Africa, but especially in the bush.’
‘That’s true,’ Joshua finally says. ‘I never thought of that. You’re not afraid?’
‘No. Animals don’t scare me. Only humans do.’
Jaclyn Goldis, The Safari
Jaclyn Goldis’ The Safari takes readers on a thrilling tour through the South African savanna alongside the Babels — the ultra-rich and powerful family behind global fashion empire Circ. Their company name pays homage to the circle of life, the only rule of law governing the wilderness surrounding the Leopard Sands safari lodge, where the family has gathered to celebrate Odelia and Asher’s impending nuptials. Throughout the story, Goldis treats us to everything from a high-stakes whodunit to an intense inheritance battle and an illicit love affair (or two). While the ultimate culprit may not be an altogether unpredictable conclusion for eagle-eyed mystery readers, the journey to get there will satisfy all the same. And even if you see the main reveal coming, Goldis’ plentiful plot twists are sure to keep you on your toes from cover to cover!
A Striking Depiction of Family Dysfunction
If Tolstoy is right and every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, then I am confident in saying that the Babels of Palm Beach, Florida, are unhappy in the darkest and deepest possible way.
Jaclyn Goldis, The Safari
The Babels’ fraught relationships convey how familial love is colored by years of layered slights, wrongdoings, and misunderstandings. Over the course of the narrative, they struggle to come to terms with how they truly feel about each other. Most often, they’re at each other’s throats, throwing pointed insults and ripping open old wounds. Then, there are the softer, rarer moments when their sincere love and care for one another shines through — if only for the briefest of seconds.
For the emotionally stunted Babels, these warring sentiments are hard to reconcile. But as new revelations come to light, forcing them to untangle decades’ worth of trauma and resentment, they come to understand a simple truth: Love and hate can co-exist. And when it comes to family, things are rarely black and white, especially where feelings are concerned. Thus, they’re forced to make room for multifaceted emotions and reconsider how the turbulent bonds of family have shaped their worldview, relationships, and sense of self — in good ways and bad.
A Nuanced Look at Religious Identity
In Hebrew, the word for husband also means ‘owner.’ And that’s how I felt—a kept woman.
Jaclyn Goldis, The Safari
With a main cast consisting almost entirely of explicitly Jewish characters, The Safari has a lot to say about religion, as do its protagonists. Certain members of the family view orthodoxy as a kind of bondage, chaining them to “archaic religious rules” and stripping them of personal autonomy and identity. Others view it as a form of freedom and community. Goldis doesn’t shy away from discussing such sensitive topics with depth. Through characters like Sam and Bailey, she examines the way homophobia and misogyny invade certain religious institutions and how marginalized individuals such as queer people and women must reckon with their personal faith in the face of these prejudices.
However, she also sheds light on the positive aspects of religion, illuminating how those in need of community can find it through shared devotion. As Sam tells Bailey, not all religious organizations are restrictive and exclusionary; plenty reject outdated, bigoted practices like conversion therapy in favor of more inclusive modern doctrines. Altogether, The Safari depicts a wide array of Jewish identities, from secular to Orthodox Judaism and everything in between, giving voice to the vast diversity within the Jewish community.
A Powerful Call to Break Free From Expectations
Isn’t that the problem with reducing ourselves to one defining characteristic? We miss the substance behind the facade. The everything, behind the one thing.
Jaclyn Goldis, The Safari
Though The Safari’s primary characters are predominantly rich, powerful, and privileged, they aren’t without their problems. Chief among these issues is this: Each of them, at one point or another, feels confined by the role they’ve been assigned by the people around them and society at large.
The unshakable CEO. The golden-boy son. The dutiful best friend. The obedient rule-follower. The problem child. These one-dimensional archetypes stifle the layers upon layers of personality that lie beneath the veneer of performed conformity, inhibiting our genuine desires from surfacing. As many of the protagonists conclude, releasing ourselves from the pressures of expectation is the only way to live more authentically as our true, unburdened selves.
Final Thoughts
In The Safari, Jaclyn Goldis weaves a sophisticated murder mystery with endless twists, turns, and threads. She pulls from her deep love of Agatha Christie classics, her years of globe-trotting, and her passion and respect for her Jewish heritage to craft a gripping narrative with exponentially more depth than your average whodunit. Thriller fans won’t want to miss out on this epic excursion through the South African wilds!
You’ll love The Safari if you enjoyed these books:
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
- How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin
- Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena
- The Family Plot by Megan Collins
- The House of Wolves by James Patterson and Mike Lupica
- The Inheritance by Trisha Sakhlecha
- The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza
Bookstr’s The Safari Dream Cast:
- Lisa Kudrow as Odelia Babel, Babel family matriarch and CEO of Circ
- Chris Pine as Asher Bach, Odelia’s fiancé and head designer at Circ
- Emory Cohen as Joshua Babel, Odelia’s eldest son
- Asher Angel as Sam Babel, Odelia’s youngest son and Bailey’s twin
- Joey King as Bailey Babel, Odelia’s daughter and Sam’s twin
- Debra Messing as Gwen Tulchinsky, Odelia’s assistant and childhood friend
- Charlize Theron as Violett DeVilliers, manager of Leopard Sands
Final Score: 4.5/5
The Safari officially hits shelves on May 20! If you want to add this tantalizing thriller to your TBR, you can preorder it on Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Amazon. Thank you to Atria Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
To read our review of Goldis’ previous novel, The Main Character, click here!
To browse more books like this, check out Bookstr’s Mystery shelf on Bookshop!
