Měishì Kāfē (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781834380094)

It has been two years since Australian marine biologist Doctor Nicole Brandon, retired investigator John Bolt, and North African military officer Ellmeera Majang formed a partnership to re-establish Nicole's Vallarta Cetacean Research Center in Mexico. That partnership was nearly upended when Ellmeera offered to sacrifice herself to assassins so as not to compromise the new lives of non-violence she had achieved for the remaining members of her bodyguard unit. Things have apparently returned to normal and the three partners have settled into their busy lives operating the research facility. Unexpectedly, while Nicole is finishing her teaching session at San Diego University, a colleague with whom she has been working to investigate the shipping of illegal marine animal products is killed in a boat collision at sea. The incident appears to be an unfortunate accident, but Nicole becomes suspicious when, soon after, she opportunely avoids what appears to be an attempt on her life. Is the timing of the events coincidental, or is someone trying to stop her from pursuing an aspect of her environmental advocacy for which her friend has been silenced? Nicole involves John to help protect her on her boat trip back to Mexico and try to unravel the details of her friend's death. Industrial operative Zhang Wen follows her to Puerto Vallarta on an assignment to extinguish her life-long passion for giving voice to sentient species who have no voice against the voracious greed and selfish insensitivity of humans. However, events put Zhang on an unexpected personal trajectory that intersects with Nicole in a most dangerous circumstance.