A Layla Remington Mystery set in California, this crime tale chillingly presents the bizarre amid the normal. Law enforcement officers are concerned about a wildfire as they look over the hillsides, when word reaches them that a maniac has shot down a captive band of chimpanzees. Anyone who would do this must be a serious danger to the public, so DA Sheila Hightower, Detective Investigator Layla Remington and ADA Rick Stills have to investigate the murder of 13 HOLLYWOOD APES.

One young male chimp survived, with a bullet to his shoulder. The fire burned through the Malibu sanctuary area later so clues are hard to find. And it's not as if the survivor Angle can provide information. Where to start? The coroner states that it's the wrong species. He'll try to find a forensic veterinarian. Layla goes to visit the survivor Angle and discovers just how close to us these near relatives really are. His two keepers were on the property, and took risks to rescue the wounded ape - they could have been shot. Now along comes a rock star, Mace Arthur, who states that the chimp is nobody's property but belongs to himself, and Mace is taking him away to give him good care. Angle seems entirely trusting of Mace, so Layla decides that the case is getting stranger by the minute.

I found that a whole Pandora's Box is opened as human deaths occur, not alone raising the issue of ape fingerprints and styles of violence, but the philosophical issues of freedom of sentient beings on one hand, and disturbing racism on the other. The reader is continually confronted with previously unconsidered issues through the journey of the characters. If an ape kills a person, is that murder, manslaughter, or dumb animal attack? Then what about a person who kills an ape? Or who uses an ape as a weapon? In some countries monkeys and apes are killed and eaten, which is how the three strains of HIV entered the human population. What about if a chimp can communicate via American Sign Language? If a bloodhound can legally testify, can a chimp?

I would say this is a cross between a police thriller and Michael Creighton's Congo, with copious detail and some unpleasantly gory scenes. Some readers are not happy to be challenged in their ways of thinking but 13 HOLLYWOOD APES is not only a provoking read, it provides a lot of information and ultimately invites readers to make up their own minds on the issue. I recommend this work by Gil Reavill, who has written several crime-fact books, to adults, but it's not for the squeamish.

Book Summary

In a savvy, stylish thriller debut perfect for anyone who loves the crime novels of Michael Connelly or Nevada Barr, Gil Reavill unravels a chilling tale of murder and mayhem among humans and their closest evolutionary relatives—a primate family that may just be too close for comfort. As a wildfire rages outside the Odalon Animal Sanctuary in the rugged Santa Monica foothills, the retired Hollywood movie chimpanzees housed there are shot and left for dead. When Malibu detective Layla Remington reaches the grisly scene the next morning, she’s deeply disturbed—and even more confused. The victims are not human, so the attack cannot be classified as homicide. Yet someone clearly wanted these animals dead, and executed them with ruthless efficiency. Miraculously, there is one survivor: a juvenile male named Angle. But as Layla reaches the veterinarian’s office where Angle is recovering, a man with rock-star good looks and a laid-back Southern California attitude swoops in and removes him. And just like that, an unusual case turns truly bizarre. Soon reports surface of ferocious attacks against Odalon employees . . . with Angle as the prime suspect. As a wave of senseless violence reaches its apex, Layla chases a mystery man and his chimp—but everything comes back to that terrible night at the sanctuary.