Leopard at the Door
After six years exiled in England, Rachel has returned to Kenya and the farm where she spent her childhood, only to find the home she has longed for in the grip of change. Her father’s new companion—a strange, intolerant woman—has taken over the household, and the political climate in the country is growing more unsettled by the day. Looming over them all is the threat of Mau Mau—a secret society intent on uniting the Africans and overthrowing the whites.
As Rachel struggles to find her place in her home, she initiates a secret relationship, one that will demand from her an act of betrayal. Only one man knows her secret, and he has made it clear how she can buy his silence. But she knows something of her own, something she has never told anyone. And her knowledge brings her power.
From the celebrated author of The Fever Tree, comes a captivating and evocative portrait of a woman—and a nation—on the cusp of profound change.
"This is a book that will steal your heart. It is a wonderful, stunning, heart-wrenching tale of love, danger and self-discovery. Jennifer McVeigh's descriptions of life in Kenya are electric in intensity and open up the world of Africa in vivid detail in a way that totally beguiled me. I couldn't put it down. Her prose is so exquisite, it took me places I have never been before. A powerful, painful and brilliant book.'
Kate Furnivall, Author of The Russian Concubine
“The beating heart of Africa springs into dazzling heat-drenched life. I could taste the sun soaked sweetness of bananas, see the shimmering plains and smell the rippling grasslands. I could feel the ever present sense of threat and menace. And within this landscape populated by elephants, baboons and antelope a powerful human story plays out. A simply stunning novel that will stay with me: a magnificent book."
Dinah Jefferies, Author of the No. 1 Bestselling The Tea Planter's Wife
