Stevie‘s review of Dian’s Ghost by Justine Saracen
Lesbian Adventure Fiction published by Bold Strokes Books 15 Mar 16
Justine Saracen could never be accused of shying away from difficult subjects or from settings likely to be unfamiliar to the majority of her readers. Which explains a lot about why I enjoy her novels. This time, the setting is Rwanda around the time of the civil wars in the early to mid-1990s, and the questions posed revolve around the value of human lives set against those of other species.
The story opens with a vigilante-style double murder carried out by one of our heroines, although it’s not until later we discover which of her victims’ multitudinous crimes triggered her seemingly out-of-character acts of violence. Attempting to evade the police, Dana seeks shelter in a lecture theatre, where she is entranced by the speaker, Kristen, who is attempting to continue the work of Dian Fossey to study and protect mountain gorillas and is visiting the university in search of volunteers to work with her team.
With no job, and quite possibly no safe future in New York, Dana signs up. She’s unprepared for the life she finds in Rwanda, but she discovers that the gorilla families are at least as fascinating as Kristen and soon realises that she’s prepared to threaten anyone who tries to disrupt their sanctuary. The country isn’t a safe place for wildlife, with rich foreigners prepared to pay well for both body parts of adults and live youngsters, middle men sheltering behind respectable businesses and important political connections, and impoverished locals resorting to poaching often, because they see no other way of getting the money to feed their families. Once war breaks out, the country is no longer safe for anyone.
This is a thrilling story, as Dana and Kristen struggle against the odds, first to rescue a snatched baby gorilla and return her to her remaining family and later on to keep themselves alive and reach safety beyond the war zone. Then, if they do escape and make it back to the US, there’s still the question of how Dana can make a new home there, knowing that the police may be looking for her. There’s romance in this story too, of course, and also a rival to Dana – not so much for Kristen’s affections as for her moral compass. There’s very little absolute good or bad in this story, just better and worse acts.
All in all, a splendid read, with a satisfying conclusion that surprised me as much as it did our heroines, although all the clues were there right from the early scenes.
Grade: A
Summary:
Dana Norland shoots two men in cold blood and flees the US for the mountains of Rwanda. Posing as a biologist, she finds herself caring for gorillas with Kristen, Dian Fossey’s successor at the Karisoke research center. She has plenty of time to think about what she’s done, but can she find peace? Apparently not, for the mountain is haunted both by the ghost of Dian Fossey, and by the men who murdered her. Personal vendetta joins with genocide, and to flee the marauding butchers, the women hide in the rainforest. Among the mountain gorillas they once protected, they learn what justice is. And what it is not.
Read an excerpt.
