The Leopard Hunts in Darkness

Zimbabwe in the early years after independence. Craig Mellow, a successful novelist living abroad, returns to the country from which he fled at the end of the Rhodesian Bush War. He hopes to recover his family’s land and the sense of purpose he has lost, but the new state is marked by political rivalry, official suspicion and memories of the liberation struggle. Craig’s old relationships cannot simply be resumed: former allies now occupy different positions within the government, security services and opposition.

A proposed conservation project draws Craig into corruption, smuggling and a wider struggle over who may speak for the new nation. The violence of the colonial period remains present in property disputes and personal loyalties, while the promises of independence are threatened by authoritarian power and factional conflict. Craig must decide whether attachment to his family’s past represents belonging or another claim upon a country that has changed without him. The novel is both a return adventure and an examination of the uncertain transition from white-ruled Rhodesia to independent Zimbabwe.