A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn

Only when this sacred place is profaned by bloodshed does Delilah discover what is truly worth fighting for-and what she can no longer live without.

Amidst the wonders-and dangers-of Africa, Delilah awakes to a land out of all proportion: extremes of heat, darkness, beauty and joy that cut to her very heart. Here, life is lush and teeming-yet fleeting and often cheap. Giraffes, buffalo, lions and elephants roam the shores of Lake Wanyama amid swirls of red dust. Publication Order of Spear Of Summer Grass Books. As foreign to Delilah as Africa, Ryder becomes her guide to the complex beauty of this unknown world. Deanna Raybourn is an American author of historical mystery novels. Against the frivolity of her peers, Ryder White stands in sharp contrast. As mistress of this wasted estate, Delilah falls into the decadent pleasures of society.

Fairlight is the crumbling, sun-bleached skeleton of a faded African dream, a world where dissolute expats are bolstered by gin and jazz records, cigarettes and safaris. Delilah is exiled to Kenya and her favorite stepfather's savannah manor house until gossip subsides. But her latest scandal is big enough to make even her oft-married mother blanch. Ryder returns in A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn, where he encounters a woman from a very different world, to explore beauty and darkness and what is truly worth fighting for.Goodreads says, ' Paris, 1923 - The daughter of a scandalous mother, Delilah Drummond is already notorious, even amongst Paris society. But this perilous journey is full of dangers that may change Ryder forever. When a European prince hires Ryder to help him hunt an elusive leopard Ryder thinks it’s just another well-paying job with yet another spoiled voyeur. In a landscape where one false move can cost a man his life, Ryder’s skill as a guide is unparalleled, but only the rich or royal can afford his services. He is more at home in the wilds of the savannah, shooting and sleeping his way across the continent, than amongst the hedonistic colonists of Kenyan society. Ryder White is Canadian by birth but African by choice. New York Times bestselling author of Killers of a Certain Age, Deanna Raybourn, takes readers into Africa during the height of British colonialism, to meet a man as wild as the land he loves in this prequel novella.