Hell’s Gate by Michael Parker

HELL’S GATE is a historical action adventure set in British East Africa in 1898. It is inspired by the true events in the British Protectorate when the British government constructed a railway line from Mombassa on the east coast of Africa to the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda. At the same time the German government was building a line from Zanzibar to Lake Victoria. History records that the ‘race’ was conceded to the British by the governor of the German Protectorate. Into these facts, Michel Parker has woven a tale of intrigue, violence and conspiracy against a backdrop of the splendour of the Rift Valley and the volcanic landscape that threatens the very existence of the railway line itself. But it isn’t just the forces of nature that need to be fought, but the threat of 10,000 warring Masai led by the evil slave trader, Piet Snyder. Against this menace, Captain Kingsley Webb, commandant of the British East African Rifles is ordered to defend Nairobi railway camp and the two thousand souls who make up this teeming, tented city with just two hundred soldiers under his command. His love for the beautiful Hannah Bowers is also challenged by the widowed farmer, Reuben Cole who is forced to set out on a quest to find his son, David, kidnapped by Piet Snyder. The explosive mixture of love, conspiracy, treachery and political intrigue are brought together in a beautifully woven tapestry in this compelling tale. Will suit readers who like stories of colonial Africa, the British Empire, railway construction, slavery, action heroes, 19th. century military and romantic intrigue.