"We often look to escape the everyday by seeking out the dark places where something monstrous waits in the void. Luke Phillips takes you there, where man is still well and truly on the menu." (Shannon Legro, host of Into the Fray radio podcast)

1898, East Africa. The Tsavo man-eaters kill 130 people over the course of nine months. The unusually large, pale-coloured, and maneless male lions mark history in what became known as their reign of terror.

Now, history is repeating itself. A new pride of killers has arrived in Tsavo, staking out their own bloody legacy. One that includes the murdered wife of conservationist and former hunter Thomas Walker.

Torn between the newfound happiness he has discovered in the Highlands of Scotland with his new fiancée and his loyalty to the man whose brother has been taken by the man-eaters, Thomas must face his past and creatures feared as myth by his friend and the people of Kenya.

Arriving in Africa, Thomas finds the situation worsening as a local arms dealer and war lord declares the "critters of the bush" are under his command to drive those not loyal to him from the land. With everything not as it seems, the odds are stacked against Thomas and the small band of friends trying to restore balance to the region and its wildlife.