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 KLAUSSMANNSweeping, 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.
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An Unsuitable Woman
Kat Gordon
First published in hardback as
The Hunters
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, whilst at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.
The Borough Press
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
First published in hardback as The Hunters
Kat Gordon asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © Kat Gordon 2018
Newspaper article, © East African Standard, 14 July 1934
Selected quotes, taken from Kenya Legislative Council Debates, 1938, vol IV, Defence, col.6
Selected quotes, taken from Kenya Legislative Council Debates, 1938, vol VI, col.461
Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Cover photographs © PlainPicture (woman) and Shutterstock.com (background)
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Source ISBN: 9780008253066
Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780008253080
Version: 2018-11-15
‘A rich reimagining of a colonial Eden in which multitudes of serpents lurked’
Sunday Times
‘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 Klaussman, 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 … 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
To my son, Noah, and the Somerville girls, for everything.
Contents
Praise for An Unsuitable Woman
Part One: 1925–1927
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Part Two: 1933–1937
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Part Three: 1937–1938
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Historical Note
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Also by Kat Gordon
About the Publisher
Her heart stopped at 20:57 exactly. She had looked at her watch only moments before, and asked the totos to turn on a lamp. She had been reading and hadn’t noticed it getting dark until her eyes had smarted suddenly with the strain.
It had been a warm evening – a warm end to a hot, sticky day that had wrapped itself around her, dampening her upper lip and armpits and the backs of her knees – and she was wearing a thin blue cardigan over the white dress. It made her laugh, wearing white, after everything that had happened, or maybe it made her cry. She stopped the totos again and asked for some tea. Her stomach was still delicate. Her whole body had changed since childbirth, in fact. But she didn’t like to think about that.
She turned her head towards the door, as if she’d heard a noise outside. A crunch and a low purr, but not an animal’s; this was a car pulling up. She wondered for a moment if it was Theo – he often dropped by unannounced. She held the book up. She didn’t want to see him. She didn’t want to see anyone, except the totos passing in and out of the shadows cast by the lamp.
Through the screen door she could smell the magnolia tree, and the roses she’d planted. The sweetness of the flowers mingled with the sharpness of the limes that the totos used to polish the furniture, filling the room with a powerful haze. It made her feel tired, or was that the sudden quiet? The cicadas had stopped their humming, and she couldn’t even hear the water. Peace.
