Jennifer Mc Veigh: Leopard by the door, 9780241247617 , Penguin Books UK, paperback

 Jennifer Mc Veigh’s novel „Leopard by the door" is set in Kenya in the 1950ties, the time of the bloody Mau Mau rebellion. The book draws on facts of the Mau Mau uprisings which the author adds in an informative afterword.  This is a really good holiday read for those looking for an East Africa story line, its comes laced with betrayal, an inter- racial love story and historical background about the Mau Mau movement which ended British colonial ruler ship leading to the birth of independent Kenia. 

Rachel Fullsmith returns to her beloved Kenya and her parents farm Kisima after having been sent to England for schooling,  with her grandparents as guardians when her beloved mother dies suddenly. When she finally returns to Kenya, she finds the world has changed even in this remote corner of the world she calls home. Her father has found a new partner, Sara, who has brought a teenage son with her, Harold, a sensitive boy interested in photography and a love for animals. They strike up an immediate comradery.  Sara is the exact opposite of her mother and the two women have a strained relationship from the very beginning, Sara has no taste for life in the bush, a place Rachel dreamed about during her emotionally and atmospherically cold years in England. Having grown up among the Kikuyu tribe living on their land, people she calls family, she has little tolerance for the new racist talks and beliefs of her soon to be step mother who seems to have influenced her father and changed his formerly liberal views. Harold and Rachel share a love for Africa, but things start to come to a head when Mau Mau killing sprees move in closer to the neighboring farms.  After her return, Rachael fell in love with Michael, her former teacher, a Kikuyu who seems to be linked to Mau Mau and the Labor movements. As colonial Africa is beginning to fall apart, the political developments have dire consequences for Rachel, her family, Harold and the Kikuyu. 

MC Veigh writes fluidly and keeps you on edge, particularly towards the end. I really enjoyed the novel but some of the storyline is rather predictable. The cover is simply dreadful in my view,  far too schmaltzy and kitschy which belittles McVeigh’s work.