Red Days by ML Sparrow makes you experience the horror of the Taiji Dolphin Hunt through the experiences of its protagonist, Keiko Saito. Japanese by virtue of being born to Japanese parents, Keiko is a young Englishwoman, living her urban life as a reporter. Suddenly, when she is asked to visit Japan to do a piece on the dolphin hunt and the efforts of the conservationists to stop it, she starts off on a journey that proves to be life changing. Meeting people like Ric and Jed who have dedicated their lives to save the dolphins and bring about change, despite great risk to their personal safety, inspires her to take up the cause like an activist. Having lost and found love, a new purpose to her writing and life, Keiko's transition from a naive reporter to a courageous woman is exhilarating and liberating at once.

Reading Red Days by ML Sparrow has been an eye opener. It fills one with rage to learn the graphic details of the inhumane and horrible methods used to kill and maim innocent dolphins in the guise of culture, tradition and livelihood. It is shameful that the world has kept quiet and allowed such carnage to happen without raising a hue and cry. Keiko's story inspires one to believe that anyone with the will to bring about change can do so with a little bit of grit and determination. Kudos to the author for having written a story that is gripping and sensitive. Hopefully, many readers will be inspired to do their bit to make this world a better, kinder place for all of us who inhabit it.

Red Days is a passionate work of fiction by writer ML Sparrow, which brings awareness of the horrors of the annual Taiji Dolphin Slaughter. Although only a novella, it nevertheless packs the punch of a full-length novel and provides valuable information and links to sources closely associated with the subject matter at hand. Twenty-five-year-old Keiko (Kiki) Sato is living a charmed life; the kind of life many of her contemporaries would give their eye-teeth to have. Of Japanese heritage, Keiko lives in a spacious apartment in central London with her good-looking and well-earning boyfriend, Julian, and had been lucky enough to have been recruited directly out of school to work as a reporter for one of London’s top newspapers. She’s still trying to make a name for herself at the paper and the going isn’t always easy, but things take a turn for the better after she’s called into her boss’s office. Keiko’s given a new assignment together with a DVD which she’s to watch. The DVD is called The Cove, produced by Ric O’Barry, an American who had captured and trained dolphins for a classic American television show from the sixties before deciding to found Dolphin Project, a group dedicated to helping dolphins in need. Soon, Keiko is on her way to Taiji, Japan in order to interview Ric O’Barry. Once there, she’s swept away by his passion and that of Ric’s assistant activist, Jed Kenrick. The two men take her to the infamous cove where the dolphins are driven and subsequently slaughtered. These horrific days are known as red cove days – days when the normally blue water turns an ugly red from all the spilled dolphin blood as they’re systematically slaughtered. Little by little, Keiko sheds her reporter’s objectivity and the trappings of her former life, eventually becoming a passionate and spirited activist, supported at every turn by Jed Kenrick, a man who Keiko admires very much…

Non-fiction books that focus on a cause are difficult to write, works of fiction even more so. The fiction aspect of the story requires believable characters, pacing, and a compelling story while not losing sight of the purpose of the book – which is to highlight a cause. The author manages to balance the two rather nicely in Red Days. What was particularly well done was the way in which Sparrow captured the inner conflict Keiko sometimes had with her heritage. She initially resented the fact that her boss gave her the Taiji assignment on the basis that she could easily blend in with the locals, yet relied on the fact that she blended in so that she could gain admittance to the Whaling Museum without being singled out as a foreigner. Many others, like Jed, were considered trouble-making activists and automatically banned from entering. The budding romance that develops between Keiko and Jed is sweet in that it’s a shared passion for each other as well as their fight to abolish the dolphin slaughter at Taiji. It would have been very easy for Sparrow to wring every last emotion from her readers through the inordinate use of adjectives. Luckily, she chose not to do that, instead letting her well-chosen words carry the emotional impact necessary to keep her readers engaged and, above all, committed not only to the book, but to a worthwhile cause. For lovers of animals and animal activists the world over, Red Days packs a powerful punch and is certainly worth the read.

Red Days by M.L. Sparrow is an engaging novel constructed around a truly horrific annual event – the slaughter of dolphins, whales and porpoises in the coves of Taiji, Japan. The story follows Keiko Saito, a British journalist born of Japanese parents, who is given an assignment by her editor to write an article on the annual slaughter. Underwhelmed at first, she is quickly fired up for the task when she is handed a first class plane ticket to travel to Japan and make an in-depth study for her article. There she meets Jed Kenrick, an activist working with Ric O’Barry (a real-life campaigner who has been woven into the narrative). Together they arrange for Keiko to witness the slaughter at first hand. Sickened by the senseless killing and determined to do her bit to put a stop to it, she returns to London, presenting a hard-hitting article to her paper and becoming involved in the campaign to promote awareness of this barbaric annual event. Taking some of her holiday leave, she returns to Japan at her own expense to carry out further research and pay a visit to her family who, she is surprised to learn, along with most Japanese, know nothing of the Taiji slaughter. Working closely with Jed Kendrick, their friendship starts to deepen and back in London she realises that her feelings for him have developed beyond mere camaraderie. Returning once more to Japan, their relationship blossoms and is continued via Skype on her return home. It would be a shame to give away any more of the story, but there is plenty of action in the closing chapters.

I was appalled by the revelations in Ms Sparrow’s book and took the trouble to check the Taiji situation, finding a considerable amount of information and distressing video footage of this continuing event on line. The Japanese government allows the slaughter on the basis that dolphins are depleting fish stocks, while the small number of fishermen involved maintain that it is part of their culture and nothing to do with the rest of the world. Of course, they also seek to protect their livelihoods. I suppose it could be argued that nature is ‘red in tooth and claw’ (Tennyson) and in any case, dolphins kill to survive and killer whales have been filmed playing with their prey much like cats will torment mice. But isn’t it our ability to emphasise, and our sense of right and wrong, what makes us human? As a race, we have put a stop to so many barbaric practices (though many continue). Can we not put a stop to this senseless slaughter? But I mustn’t drone on - my function as a reviewer is to present a balanced view of the book in question. Red Days by M.L. Sparrow is a creditable story and a worthwhile read, whether or not you are interested in the welfare of cetaceans. I do not hesitate to recommend it.