Wildflower is a compelling work of narrative nonfiction in which the shocking death of a dedicated environmentalist becomes a broader story of a beautiful, breathtaking country in peril.

In January 2006, Joan Root, a sixty-nine-year-old naturalist, Oscar-nominated wildlife filmmaker, and staunch conservationist, was murdered by two masked men armed with an AK-47 shortly after midnight in her bedroom on the shore of Kenya's beautiful Lake Naivasha. Was it a random robbery gone bad, as the local police seemed to think, or was it a cold-blooded contract killing carried out at the behest of enemies Root had made in her efforts to protect Kenya's wildlife? Veteran journalist Mark Seal set out to investigate this gripping real-life murder mystery-and instead found an unforgettable story not only of a tragic death but of the remarkable life that preceded it.

With compassion and an unswerving regard for the truth, Seal lays bare the deeply moving, inspirational history of Joan Root, covering her early days in Kenya as a shy young woman with an almost uncanny ability to connect to animals; her whirlwind courtship with the dashing Alan Root, their marriage, and the twenty years of nonstop adventure, passionate romance, and groundbreaking wildlife filmmaking that followed, both in Africa and around the world; the shattering disintegration of the marriage and partnership; and Joan's triumphant struggle to reinvent herself as the protector of her lakeshore community's fragile ecosystem-a struggle that would lead to her death.

Wildflower is also the story of Kenya itself. A country blessed with unmatched beauty that is one of the last repositories of rare wildlife on the African continent, Kenya has also been scarred by decades of colonization and a culture of corruption fueled by the frequently competing agendas of conservationists and business interests. Joan Root dreamed of a bright future for Kenya and spent her life fighting with quiet heroism and courage to make that dream a reality. Her life ended too soon, but her legacy lives on.

"Vanity Fair contributing editor Seal expands on his August 2006 article for the magazine in this sweeping and atmospheric biography of the conservationist and wildlife filmmaker Joan Root, who was brutally murdered in her home on Lake Naivasha, Kenya, a region she was trying to save from poachers and environmental ruin. Intrigued by Root's suspicious death and cinematic life with husband and nature documentarian Alan Root, Seal mines Joan's diaries and writings to offer a lush love story set in the heyday of British colonialism in Nairobi, where amid the decadence and dilettantism, Alan fell in love with the lovely Joan Thorpe, an 'Ingrid Bergman lookalike' and daughter of an English adventurer. Their partnership produced award-winning documentaries (their 1978 film on termite mounds, Mysterious Castles of Clay, was narrated by Orson Welles and nominated for an Oscar) and television specials. Their inability to have children was a source of constant sorrow for the couple, and despite the romance of their joint pursuits, their marriage unraveled. Seal's effort is a seamless story redolent with adventure, passion and heartbreak; its beauty nearly eclipses the tragedy of Root's untimely — and unsolved — death in 2006. Photos. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

A five-sentence obituary with the headline "Conservationist Killed" inspired Vanity Fair journalist Mark Seal's biography of documentary filmmaker Joan Root, who was murdered in Kenya in 2006. The modest obituary suited a woman who spent much of her life behind the scenes of the groundbreaking wildlife films she made with her husband, Alan Root — coaxing the animals out of hiding, rescuing her husband... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) after a hot-air balloon crash and packing up their Land Rover with supplies for month-long shoots. Root was so quiet, self-effacing and stoic that her only response to being stung by a scorpion (on her honeymoon, no less) was a demure "Oh."

It took a threat to her beloved animals to break Root out of this meekness. She refused to abandon her Lake Naivasha home — and the hippos, birds and snakes that lived nearby — when fish poachers thrust her neighborhood into lawlessness. Was her murder a robbery gone wrong, as the police insist, or were poachers fed up with the woman who stood between them and their profits? More significant than Seal's investigation into Root's murder is his portrait of this extraordinary adventurer, whose life story is also being developed into a film, with Julia Roberts as star and producer.

Rachel Saslow is an editorial aide in The Washington Post Health section.

Reviewed by Rachel Saslow, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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"Vanity Fair" contributing editor Seal tells the mesmerizing story of the captivating life and shocking death of world-renowned naturalist Joan Root.