The Dhow House

'McNeil writes descriptions that shimmer...[a] compulsively readable novel.'     The New York Times Book Review

'A completely absorbing, eminently readable — to the point of being almost unputdownable —complex, cleverly crafted work.'    The Daily Mail

'With dreamlike prose and an intriguing protagonist, McNeil builds momentum to her novel's surprising final chapters. . . McNeil's storytelling will pull [readers] in and captivate them to the end.'     Booklist

'Like the landscape she depicts, McNeil's prose combines poetic grace with shadows of menace: behind every flowering bush or luxurious shrub there may be an exotic bird or a poisonous snake - or an armed marauder. The effect is both gripping and unsettling.'     Quill and Quire

When Rebecca Laurelson, an English doctor, is forced to leave her post in an east African field hospital, she arrives at her aunt's house on the Indian Ocean and is taken into the heart of a family she has never met before. But the gilded lives of her aunt Julia's family and their fellow white Africans are under threat - Islamist terror attacks are on the rise and Rebecca knows more about this violence than she is prepared to divulge. Will she be able to save her new-found family from the threat that encroaches on their seductive lives? Or, amidst growing unrest, will the true reason for her hasty exit from her posting be unmasked?