Heart of Darkness meets Marlon James’s Black Leopard, Red Wolf and Silvia Moreno Garcia’s The Gods of Jade and Shadow in this exhilarating debut novel, where a Witcher-like heroine in late 19th century East Africa must work with a goma as the gods meddle in the real history of a cursed British railroad.

A silent prayer of retribution is answered as one woman, as strong and singular as a baobab tree, does all in her power to subdue the monster within, and hunt the ever more powerful creatures attempting to destroy her land.

February, 1898. The sanguine Lt. Col. Patterson sails to Africa with an exhilarating task: to build a railway bridge over a muddy river in loathsome territory. A difficult dream, and the hardships of drought are debilitating enough, but when something starts hunting his men, seeking them out no matter where they sleep to devour them, things get personal and dangerous.

Kifa, a Bogomo girl feared and spurned by her people for her gift of cheating death, is sought out to help. A dogged mission ensues in a tense square mile shared by the Mohammedan, the Christian, the Hindu, and the African. Patterson and Kifa find themselves in the crosshairs of ancient powers and learn that purpose comes with devils in its details.