Herds of wild elephants in an African game park mysteriously drop dead around water holes. The new Parks warden must find the cause. Poachers seize him and two environmentalists; their survival depends on one small elephant herd.
Excerpt
After breakfast Friday morning, Hector attended the Hwange National Park’s morning briefing at the Main Camp head office, where he was introduced to the staff as the new superintendent by Chief Ranger Julius Mtakwe. He was acquainted with Julius who had worked for him as a tracker at Mana Pools National Park five years ago.
During the briefing, attended by some thirty personnel, he noted that nobody had raised the subject of the thirty-five dead elephants at the park’s Inkonkoni Pan. ZimParks was either keeping a close hold on this information or these staffers knew nothing about it.
After the meeting he took Patrick aside.
“Do you have a camera? I think we should take one with us.”
“There is one in the superintendent’s office, I think. Do you think it’s okay if I get that one?”
“We’ll be using it for national park business, so I see no problem with that,” Hector assured him.
“I’ll fetch it.”
Patrick returned with a small camera bag containing a digital camera with various accessories.
It was around 9:00 a.m. when he and Patrick departed Main Camp, headed for the pan. Patrick had told him earlier that he was familiar with the Inkonkoni Pan, knew its location, and could direct him there. Hector had wondered, meanwhile, if Patrick knew anything about this mass elephant killing. Once they were underway, he broached the subject.
“Patrick, have you heard anything about the discovery of thirty-five elephant carcasses at the Inkonkoni Pan? I noticed that nobody mentioned it during this morning’s briefing.”
“I know about it, sir, but Superintendent Mabunda told us not to speak of it.”
“Why?”
“Maybe they do not want the newspapers to hear about it because it will stop tourists from coming to Hwange. There have been lots of newspaper articles about us sending elephants to China, and some people are very angry about it.”
Hector probed further. “Has anyone been to the pan since these elephant deaths were first reported?”
“Only Superintendent Mabunda and Charley Zondi. They saw them from a plane, and said they counted thirty-five dead elephants and other animals.”
Professional Reviews
Shadows over an African Heart
Diana Hawkins weaves a page-turning fictional tale around a series of real events in Zimbabwe that took the lives of hundreds of African elephants and threatened many more. The book offers a rare window into the exhilarating rewards and heartbreaking challenges facing the men and women who work tirelessly to protect Africa's endangered species. In her thought provoking book I found myself reliving part of my past. Joyce Poole, PhD: Founder and scientific director, Elephant Voices.org.
A chilling warning to the guardians of elephants
In 2015 Zimbabwe was stunned, shocked and horrified to hear that scores of elephants had been killed in one incident by ivory poachers. The facts behind how easily they did it, exposed in this book, are diabolical and provide a chilling warning to the guardians of elephant populations across Africa. Shadows Over an African Heart is a compelling book centered around the ring of poachers, the money men behind them and the courageous people trying to stop them. Corruption, greed and power combine to give a very real identity to the plague of ivory poaching in Zimbabwe. Characters created by the author, and the glimpses into their personal lives as well as their passion for Zimbabwe’s wildlife, are entirely credible. Shadows over an African Heart is a book in which you love the heroes and hate the villains with equal passion. The author displays an obvious love for, and understanding of, elephant herds and their very close knit family units. Shadows Over an African Heart instills new vigour into the urgent need for mankind to protect elephants at all costs, before they are gone forever.
Cathy Buckle, Zimbabwe author. Goodreads (5 out of 5 stars), Nov 5, 2018
Thriller!
The sequel to ‘Shadows Along the Zambezi’, author Diana M. Hawkins has once more written a thrilling drama set in the dark underworld of the illicit trade in elephant ivory, where the corrupt and greedy will resort to any measure—including murder—to tap into the multi-million dollar pipeline.
Environmentalist couple Piet and Jessica van Rooyen gamble with their lives as, with the help of a small band of like-minded and dedicated individuals, they fight to repatriate young captive elephant back to the wild. Unwittingly, they stumble onto the reaping and export of tusks for oriental consumption, implicating the very appointed custodians of Zimbabwe’s wildlife.
The large-scale indiscriminate poisoning of fauna at national game reserve waterholes sets the team off on a trail of ever-increasing threat, avarice and desperation by those responsible, in which human life is of little or no worth. The strength of personal relationships is put to the test as the players are torn between their passion for conservation and justice, and their loyalty to each other.
The reader is skilfully drawn into a quick-fire chain of events based entirely on the reality that is, today, pushing the African elephant to the brink of extinction.
Gerry van Tonder, author, U.K.
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