Three Hunters

From Library Journal From the Twenties the name of Cavenaugh was synonymous with big game hunting in East Africa. Now in the Eighties, Chili Cavenaugh and his sons Coke and Lucien reunite to hunt a marauding leopard preying on a remote refugee camp. Narrated from Lucien's point of view, the novel examines the Cavenaugh's compulsive womanizing and the conflicts it has created between the three men. Harrison ( Burton and Speke, In a Wild Sanctuary) is as deft at evoking the desolation of drought-stricken Africa as he is at portraying the psyches of men for whom the hunt and the kill are primary urges. More than an adventure story, this novel of male relationships and rites of passage lays bare the dichotomy between men's drives for dominance over women and nature and their quests for love.- Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Publishers Weekly Set in modern-day Kenya, this taut, intelligent novel features an estranged family of renowned hunting guides. Following the ban on big-game hunting, Chili Cavenaugh, a legendary, American-born hunter, lives on memories; his 40-year-old son Lucien opens a safari outfitting store; Lucien's older brother Coke flies tourist planes. Their story is introduced when Lucien agrees to help an attractive American relief doctor transport medical supplies from Nairobi to a refugee camp in Northern Kenya. After a leopard kills a child in the camp, and returns to strike again, Lucien asks Coke and Chili to help him track and kill the animal. Harrison's prose is lean and spare, sustaining narrative tension. In chapters alternating between the hunt and flashbacks that illuminate a lifetime of conflicts among the hunters, Harrison ( Burton and Speke ) weaves a subtle, effective tale, his characters deeply etched and memorable. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.