‘Compulsively readable novel… well-written scenes worthy of John le Carré… McNeil’s writing is most luminous, both spare and powerful’ The New York Times

‘Completely absorbing, eminently readable… You won’t read many better novels this year.’ The Daily Mail

‘This exotic novel handles large themes with assurance, tact and knowledge.’ Giles Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland

When Rebecca Laurelson, an English doctor, is forced to leave her post in an East African field hospital, she arrives at her aunt’s house on the Indian Ocean and is taken into the heart of a family she has never met before. Amongst the all-night beach parties and cocktail receptions, her attraction for her much younger cousin grows.

But the gilded lives of her aunt Julia’s family and their fellow white Africans on the coast are under threat – Islamist terror attacks are on the rise and Rebecca knows more about this violence than she is prepared to divulge. Will she be able to save her new-found family from the violence that encroaches on their seductive lives? Or, amidst growing unrest, will the true reason for her hasty exit from her posting, be unmasked?