The Incense Coast: Piracy around the Horn of Africa

296 pp. In the failed East African state of Somalia, piracy has become a dominant factor in the economy. Bordering one of the world's busiest waterways-with steady traffic coming and going through the Suez Canal-Somalia's north shore, once famed as the "Incense Coast," provides a dependable parade of suitable victims. Maritime nations have powerful naval contingents in the region; but, lacking legal justification for preemptive action, they are paralyzed and ineffective. News media are hungry for stories and photographs of pirates, and Jitka Malecek, a freelance photographer with prior experience in East Africa, has a plan for obtaining them. Somalia acts as a magnet for her, drawing the aggressive young photographer inexorably into the action.