The Inspiration for Killed in Kruger by Denise Hartman
I had a job with a nature
photographer doing writing and graphics. He was a college president before he
retired to do photography and loved challenging me to expand my horizons. When
he went to do a photo safari for 16 weeks all over the southern tip of Africa,
he challenged me to come during some part of that trip.
I did a ton of research
for the trip setting up self-safari camping sites for him and reserving
rondavels in National Parks in three countries. I signed up for some email
reports from some of the sites and started receiving all kinds on things
relating to the Southern tip of Africa. I became intrigued by odd animal
behavior and strange news from the parks.
A couple in South Africans
befriended my boss and let him stay in their home. When I was in Johannesburg I
stayed there too. They were like a pair from a SWAT team when it came
to getting in and out of their home compound. They’d both been robbed numerous
times. He had worked in the police force at one time. They planned who
would go for the gate and who would open the garage and how it would all go
before they approached the house so that there was no lingering in the street.
Their fear was palpable. It was 1998 and tensions were still running high and
crime was rampant.
We photo safaried Kruger
National Park in South Africa and Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. It was a
wonderful experience. Later after my boss came back from Africa, I would do
research identifying the animals in the slides and finding information that
might fit into stories to sell the slides.
In my research I came
across a website that was stories from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
that was a post-Apartheid attempt at cleansing the collective conscious of the
traumas that had occurred. People could testify of wrong doings that had
occurred to them or a loved one and others could confess things they had done
and ask for amnesty. Most of the stories
were heart breaking and while the commission has been criticized, it was
fascinating for me as an outsider to look into their world.
Out of all that research,
looking at my boss’s slides of Africa, and our traveling came this book. Unlike
some of the characters in my book, my photographer boss and I both made it back
from Africa alive.
I chose in Killed in
Kruger to have an outsider’s perspective on South Africa. My protagonist, Tabitha Krans, is an aspiring
travel writer from the U.S. with a bend toward sarcasm to help the book keep
from being too dark. I didn’t want to presume to speak from the point of view
of an insider. All the locals in the book that share information about the
country express something I saw in my research in one way or another, so I do
not try to judge what they are.
I also limit the scope of
the Killed in Kruger to basically the Park and one other town to make it
simpler and hopefully more accurate. I hope it’s clear from the novel that
South Africa is a beautiful place with a complicated past that is worth a
visit.
Killed in Kruger Book Blurb:
Tabitha Krans arrives to discover
the veldt of South Africa’s Kruger Park seems to have swallowed up Uncle
Phillip. Tabitha’s afraid her writing career has disappeared along with him and
dire things lie in wait for her as her mother had predicted. Uncle Phillip’s
connections are her only link to travel writing and his photos are crucial.
When he turns up dead, she wants the truth. Dead men don’t speak but photos
Phillip took evoke strange reactions in park authorities. Her nosing around
turns up suspicions of human trafficking, poaching and covert investigations
but not many answers. South Africa holds dark secrets and deep beauty but it
doesn’t want to give Tabitha the truth. She keeps prying until someone believes
she’s a threat in need of elimination.
Amazon Link http://tinyurl.com/killedinkruger
Website: http://denisemhartman.com/
Goodreads page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5143706.Denise_M_Hartman
Dense
Hartman’s Bio: Denise's background in journalism and
television production has influenced her writing style and habits, while living
overseas for several years, currently in Madrid, Spain, gives Denise's
imagination new sites and sounds for her mysteries on a day in and out basis.
She is a member of Sisters In Crime, including having been the president of her
hometown Kansas City Partners in Crime chapter. Denise has a passion for reading,
books, travel, dogs, tea, and teapots not necessarily in that order.
Comments
Thanks!
Monti
Mary Montague Sikes
nike flyknit
adidas superstars
vans shoes
vapormax
golden goose sneakers
nike huarache
nike vapormax
nike shoes
nike sneakers