Lost City

Set against the embers of a dying regime, Lost City chronicles the last days of a dictator who has held his country to ransom for thirty years. Andrew Beretto, ex-Selous Scout, left Zimbabwe in 1980 when Robert Mugabe came to power, vowing never to go back. But when his brother is murdered and his family farm seized by 'war-veterans', he vows to return to find his brother's killer. When Andrew arrives in the country, he discovers that he is a wanted man and that his brother has been murdered for more than his farm--he has left clues as to the whereabouts of nothing less than the lost treasure of the Monomatapa, and it is up to Andrew to find it. But to do this, Andrew has to tackle not only his brother's killer but the might of the Zimbabwe military, the CIO secret police, and the president himself. Andrew has also returned to face his old ghosts-particularly his childhood sweetheart Jennifer Eccles who has married the wealthiest man in Zimbabwe, a white businessman and close ally of the president. The novel is also the story of Tiger Makamba, frustrated war veteran who has waited thirty years for the liberation of his country which never came. He has taken matters into his own hands, 'liberating' farms and fighting the chefs in power. At the heart of the novel is the ailing president of Zimbabwe himself, haunted by the atrocities he has committed. The ghost of a comrade he killed to get into power will not let him rest. His only salvation lies in finding the lost kingdom of the Monomatapa, which he believes will give him legitimacy, eternal power and youth. The opposition leader in this novel is a woman, and the quest is to overthrow the patriarchal system of tyranny that has oppressed Africa for thousands of years. Beneath the ruins of Zimbabwe lies a lost matriarchal civilization.... and the Simba Chirema, the power to change this country and restore it to its former glory.