The Animal Lover

The Animal Lover is a novel that I first posted in installments on my blog.

The story of The Animal Lover in brief - très brief (yes, there are copious twists and turns along the way!): Our hero, Upton Magna, the sadsack son of evil Solomon Magna, a millionaire businessman in London, has been sidelined/posted to West Africa to find exports for his father, but he’s not doing very well. On a whim he starts following the mysterious, gorgeous Ella Bazaar on a madcap journey in search of an okapi that has been stolen. (If you don’t know what an okapi is, don’t fret.) At the same time, he starts reading the 1939 diary of one Hercule Perpignon, dashing hero and hunter (at least for a while, this being a story about animal love) on a coconut plantation in wartime West Africa. (No Nazis, sorry, but lots of magical, mystical, wonderful things start going on.) As Hercule’s adventures with the lovely young mistress of the plantation, Sylvie, get more intense, so do Upton’s with Ella Bazaar. Coincidentally (or maybe not, just to add one more parenthetical), strange things are happening in parts of the world where the evil Solomon Magna’s empire has spread its tentacles, and someone seems to be orchestrating his downfall. So, what is the connection between the possible demise of the Magna empire, Upton and the diary? Or is there any at all? And who is the animal lover? If you think you know, think again. You are probably wrong.

Start reading The Animal Lover.