The Clouds Beneath the Sun
Natalie Nelson is haunted by tragedy – her mother’s death, estrangement from her father, and rejection by her lover. In 1963, she arrives in Kenya determined to succeed in her new good fortune: joining the renowned palaeontologist Eleanor Deacon’s excavations in a region rich with evidence of the earliest hominids. A thrilling discovery leads to disaster. Two of Natalie’s colleagues, impatient to publish their findings, desecrate the grave of a revered warrior of the Maasai. They exact their own tribal justice, hacking to death one of the culprits. Natalie, the only witness to that night’s events, knows what she saw, satisfying neither side in the forthcoming trial. Subjected to heavy persuasion leading to threat, her resolution would be hard to sustain but for the unfailing friendship and skilfully ardent courtship of charismatic Jack Deacon, the autocratic Eleanor’s eldest son.
In the volatility of Nairobi, adventures in the beauty of an unspoilt land and the joy of a brief reunion with her father, Natalie becomes strong enough to give her evidence in court. But she will have a final shocking test of courage encompassing herself and Jack.
This is an exciting novel with some exquisite descriptive writing. It seems mean-minded to mention its one fault: the frequency of Natalie’s sweating. This talented author could easily have varied his beleaguered heroine’s reaction to every emotion.
