Publication Date: May 19, 2026
In this darkly funny, slightly unhinged, heart-pounding thriller, two office rivals must team up to escape wild animals and even wilder coworkers on a corporate retreat gone wrong.
Fletcher Spence is dying for a promotion. And her colleagues are more than happy to oblige.
After three years working seventy-hour weeks as assistant to the most terrifying CEO in the magazine world, Fletcher finally finagled a spot on Cartwright Media’s annual corporate retreat—a famously luxurious week on the Cartwrights’ private island, where promotions are handed out like party favors. And her plan to snag her dream job as a travel magazine photographer was going great…until her boss’s dramatic death reveals his last will and testament: Whoever survives the week will inherit the company.
So now she’s stuck on her billionaire boss’s safari park island, surrounded by wild animals and on the run from coworkers who’ve swapped coffee cups for machetes and briefcases for hunting rifles.
To Fletcher’s dismay, her only ally might be her boss’s insufferably gorgeous son, Waylon Cartwright. Despite their hostile history, Fletcher is at least 80 percent sure he won’t try to kill her this week. Plus, his experience on the island might come in handy while they fend off lions and tigers and…marketing executives? Oh my.
While Fletcher battles her own ambitions and her unexpected attraction to Waylon, her power-hungry, bloodthirsty colleagues will do anything to stop them from escaping with their lives. Everyone knows the media industry is cutthroat, but in this safari party, it’s never been more true.
Set on a private island, Safari Murder Party by Rachel Moore features an owner who is the head of Cartwright Media and his faithful, if not beleaguered, assistant.
The prologue takes place three weeks after the story begins, which I found unusual. When executives are invited to the annual retreat on the island, Fletcher, the CEO’s assistant, finagles an invitation.  All too soon, she’s sorry she was permitted to go.
Things on the island take a horrific turn when there’s an unexpected death. As details are revealed, it’s every man or woman for themselves since the last one standing will inherit the business and more. Immediately, there are more deaths, and people’s true natures are revealed. A multitude of weapons are available, and they are put to use by some, resulting in gruesome deaths. Fletcher and the owner’s son, Waylon, who isn’t part of the business but was invited by his father to attend, are trying to work together to get off the island.  There are adrenaline rushes as the story unfolds, and we learn of the various plans people have to win the jackpot, even as deaths occur one after another.
I didn’t expect the story to revert to three years earlier, when we had been getting hints throughout about what had happened, but it provides a lot of additional details. The story includes some romance and steamy moments and culminates finally in a happily-ever-after and dreams coming true. It was a satisfying conclusion.
Safari Murder Party will stretch your imagination as dangers are faced and deaths add up.
Rachel Moore is the author of high-stakes, genre-blending novels. She currently lives in Tennessee with her husband and two cats she’s violently allergic to. (The cats, not the husband.) On the rare occasion she isn’t writing happy endings, you can find her collecting dictionaries, drinking entirely too much coffee, and drifting through the library stacks.
