The Serpent of the Nile, available in paperback or ebook on Amazon.
As reader of this blog might know I spent many years in East and Central Africa as a US diplomat, including a short tour in Juba. This is my fourth novel all of which are set in Africa. A short summary of the book follows:
Paul, a former Peace Corps Volunteer teacher in Kenya, is a
Nairobi based free-lance journalist. He covered conflict in Somalia, Darfur,
and the Congo, but with visions of a Pulitzer Prize he seeks to write a story
of corruption and arms smuggling in South Sudan. Visiting that war-torn nation
Paul finds that civil strife is real, and that violence has been endemic in the
region for years. He gets schooled in the tortured history of the region and caught
up in the senselessness of it. Villains abound. Yet there are those who seek to
make their world a better place – outlier politicians, elders, reformers,
feminists, entrepreneurs, and even a soldier.
Paul finds that a mysterious force for good based on an ancient legend
is enthralling the people of Equatoria Province and threatening their Juba based political
masters. Investigating this Paul links up with United Nations peacekeepers to
visit the far-flung districts of South Sudan.
However, his very America/Kenyan presence causes him to become suspect
in the eyes of the secret police, which leads to misfortune, threats to him and
embassy personnel.
Set against the grim reality and history of South Sudan, this
novel accurately portrays the despair, hope and aspiration of the nation’s
beleaguered people.
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