The Hunters
‘An imaginative portrait of Theo Miller … and his infatuation with the seemingly glamorous figures of Sylvie de Croy and her lover … a rich reimagining of a colonial Eden in which multitudes of serpents lurked’ Sunday Times
‘Just the thing to read while sipping a cocktail or two’ iPaper
‘A gloriously dark tale, packed with heat and glamour’ LIZA KLAUSSMANN
Sweeping, evocative and sumptuously told, The Hunters is a dramatic coming-of-age story, a complex portrayal of first love and family loyalty and a passionate reimagining of the Happy Valley set in all their glory and notoriety.
Theo Miller is fourteen years old, bright and ambitious, when he steps off the train into the simmering heat and uproar of 1920s Nairobi. Neither he, nor his earnest younger sister Maud, is prepared for the turbulent mix of joy and pain their new life in Kenya will bring.
Their father is Director of Kenyan Railways, a role it is assumed Theo will inherit. But when he meets enchanting American heiress Sylvie de Croÿ and her charismatic, reckless companion, Freddie Hamilton, his aspirations turn in an instant.
Sylvie and Freddie’s charm is magnetic and Theo is welcomed into the heart of their inner circle: rich, glamourous expatriates, infamous for their hedonistic lifestyles. Yet behind their intoxicating allure lies a more powerful cocktail of lust, betrayal, deceit and violence that he realises he cannot avoid. As dark clouds gather over Kenya’s future and his own, he must find a way back to his family – to Maud – before it is too late.
”'With The Hunters, Kat Gordon has written a gloriously dark tale, packed with heat and glamour, and shot through with a fine, sharp edge. An absolutely compulsive read from beginning to end” - - LIZA KLAUSSMANN, author of Tigers in Red Weather
”'An evocative coming-of-age tale” - iPaper
”'Equally at home evoking the landscapes of east Africa and those of the flawed, capricious human heart, Kat Gordon’s The Hunters is a seductive, troubling journey into Britain’s colonial past” - - ANNA HOPE, author of Wake and The Ballroom
”'An outstanding achievement. This thrilling, evocative novel will transport and absorb you: brilliant” - - EMMA CHAPMAN, author of The Last Photograph