If cold, storms and cabin fever are getting you down this winter, open your Kindle copy of THE LION HUNTER for a little heat, dust and danger. This short story effortlessly propels the reader to a remote African safari lodge, where an English couple are enjoying a five-star honeymoon. They get chatting to an American medical man who is interested in big game and has quietly invested in a hunting trip.

Could the events portrayed occur? I've just read a true account of how people in Zambia believed a metal ring around a bird's leg must mean that the bird was connected with witchcraft. They also thought a black bird was connected with witchcraft. When a person working for a bird study group explained to them this was not the case and the ring had been placed by those studying migration patterns, schoolchildren rescued and released the next injured, ringed bird they found instead of harming it. We've also read many stories connecting poaching, hunting, terrorism and money. So I would have to say the tale by Daniel Pembrey could be all too likely.

Pembrey is a British author who has previously set stories in California, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, among other places; they usually involve crime and sometimes relate to quite recognisable contemporary situations. THE LION HUNTER is his first venture to Africa and he seems to have nailed this location too, from terrain to locals; and with predatory wildlife which comes all too close. Read it if you dare.

Book Summary

Andrew and Lavinia Riley are on their honeymoon at an African game lodge when they meet a Texan trophy hunter. Andrew, a journalist, senses a timely story about lion hunting, and engages a local guide to learn how the lions are tracked in this remote borderland of north Tanzania. Andrew finds lions, but his inquiries draw him into a different type of danger altogether – with local tribesmen. Soon, his only hope for survival lies in an unexpected source.

Read an Excerpt