Thriller uncovers mystery at the heart of human relationships
In ‘The Ghost of Sam Webster’, Craig Higginson Higginson explores love, life and darkness in the battlefields of KwaZulu-Natal
A woman’s body has been seen floating in the Buffalo River in KwaZulu-Natal: “The river turns her this way and that, worrying at her like an unwanted thought.” Her face a blank, she will be identified as 17-year-old Sam Webster, the daughter of Bruce Webster. A famous historian, he owns the luxury Webster Lodge in Zululand near the battlefields of iSandlwana, where he enacts the story of that famous battle of 1879 for lodge tourists.
Hearing about the death of Webster’s daughter, and eager to do research on an ancestor that fought in the Battle of iSandlwana, writer Daniel returns to the lodge, where he has stayed previously and had met Sam, as well as other members of her family. These include Caroline, trapped in a frustrated marriage to Bruce, seeking a way out through her infidelities, and Matthew, their younger son. Both Sam and Matthew attend prestigious boarding schools in the Midlands...
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