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The eBook was FREE at all retailers from April 7th - July 15th, 2024 to commemorate the hundred days of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. #NeverForget
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"There’s plenty of sharp, suspenseful action to savor here in this impressively poignant, hauntingly realistic, and searingly moving tale. Schafer intensively explores themes of racism, violence, war, and human welfare. Vivid, boldly written, life-affirming historical fiction drawn from the horrors of the Rwandan genocide crisis." —Kirkus Reviews
In response to the worldwide epidemic of genocides and to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, Suanne Schafer has issued a second edition of Hunting the Devil, revised and with a new Author’s Note. The electronic edition will be free from April 7 through July 15, 2024, the hundred days the 1994 genocide lasted.
When biracial physician Jessica Hemings volunteers for a medical mission in Rwanda, she becomes entrapped in the maelstrom of Rwandan politics and the enmity between Hutu and Tutsi. Her US passport doesn’t afford the security she’d hoped for as her Tutsi-like features plunge her into horrors of the Rwandan Genocide. Dr. Cyprien Gatera, Jess's superior and a Hutu militant, commandeers her clinic, forces her to treat his wounded, and then slaughters her patients and her adopted sons. She escapes and finds refuge at Benaco refugee camp in Tanzania.
There, beset by grief, hatred, and PTSD, Jess vows revenge. With the help of Michel Fournier, a French lawyer-turned-war-correspondent, and Dr. Tom Powell, her ex-lover, she searches for Gatera who has fled Rwanda to escape post-genocide reprisals. When an unknown informant passes information to Jess about her nemesis, she returns to Rwanda, despite warnings from the Belgian Secret Service that Gatera plans to assassinate her. In their final showdown, Jess must decide if revenge is best served cold or not at all.
Part medical procedural, part global political thriller, part vigilante novel, and part fractured romance, Hunting the Devil moves from the dusty washboard roads of Rwanda to an inner-city hospital in America to the Natural History Museum of Belgium to the halls of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania as it deftly traces one woman’s journey toward justice.
-Acclaim-
“There’s plenty of sharp, suspenseful action to savor here in this impressively poignant, hauntingly realistic, and searingly moving tale. Schafer intensively explores themes of racism, violence, war, and human welfare. Vivid, boldly written, life-affirming historical fiction drawn from the horrors of the Rwandan genocide crisis.”
“Hunting the Devil brings genocide forward like a machete whishing from behind you in the night.”
“A moving journey of self-discovery and empowerment in the face of unimaginable brutality. Your mind and soul will not come away unscathed after reading this book. It will change you. Profoundly.”
“One of the best books I have read in a very long time. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, but be warned, it is not for the faint-hearted and the haunting scenes faithfully reflect what could and did happen and is still happening in more than one country right now. Hunting the Devil might shock you and shake you out of your daily cotton wool cocoon, but it’s true to life, and I applaud the author for bringing the horrendous subject of genocide to light.”
“In vivid and deeply textured scenes, Suanne Schafer creates a compassionate and strong female physician who endures horror and becomes a witness in the UN genocide trials, bringing justice to Rwandan victims. Hunting the Devil’s ‘eyewitness to history’ approach is by turns enthralling, horrifying, and ultimately heartbreaking.”
“Hunting the Devil is a tightly-written, riveting novel layered with finely-crafted characters, the exploration of racism, and the horror of war’s effects on individuals. Schafer has crafted an exciting tale that culminates with a daring climatic courtroom scene that will resonate and remain with readers long after the last page.”
“Someone told me Hunting the Devil was a tour-de-force and while I agree, I think that summary needs a few more words. Gut-wrenching. Honest. Powerful. This is a story of a woman who claws her way back from the worst kind of adversity with no explanations and no apologies. Schafer pulled me in and kept me enthralled to the very end.”
“This gripping novel travels the highs and lows of humanity and keeps readers on the edge of their seats. With powerful scenes and the ability to artistically weave the beautiful with the traumatizing, Ms. Schafer has written a novel that transcends time.”
I had so much fun doing a big, beautiful, artsy bookish giveaway haul last month, I've decided to do it again! This time, I'm upping the ante by including a $10 Amazon gift card in one of the prize combos. It's only on for eight days, so enter while you can... Good...
I enjoyed Barbara Nickless’s prior Sydney Rose Parnell four-book series and the Dr. Evan Wilding three-book series, so I thought I’d like the first of her newest Benedict Hoffman and Helen Belle series, A Voice in the Dark. It has a Criminal Minds feel, and with its...
The Botticelli Secret is a mix of art history and thriller. Though the plot was highly improbable and at times thin, the book was fun to read. When Luciana, a lovely Florentine prostitute, is chosen as the model for Flora, a goddess in Botticelli’s painting...
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance is not my typical read, but I’m glad I ventured into it. A Tarzan fan from my grade school days, I confess to a fondness for feral children, and the hero of this book is truly a child of extraordinary circumstance. Born with...
Ariadne Unraveled is a retelling of the lives of Ariadne, the woman who gave Theseus a ball of yarn to guide him through the Minotaur’s lair, and Dionysus, a relatively new god of fertility and wine, so new he doesn’t have a seat on Mount Olympus. Typically I enjoy a...
Ransom is the 26th (so far) in Daniel Silva’s spy series starring the legendary Israeli spy and art restorer, Gabriel Allon. I fell in love with the series years ago because Silva so successfully melds art, art history, and thrillers and because, unlike other spy...
All Who Wander is a fascinating look at the long-term effects of insufficient love, emotional and physical abuse, as well as poor choices in relationships and life in general. Brooke, trapped in a broken family (one that’s missing a mother but has an added stepbrother...
Wisdom Corner is the second in the Virgil Wounded Horse mystery series. Like its predecessor, Winter Counts, it is set on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota and picks up where that novel left off. Virgil has become an “enforcer,” administering justice when...
Cleopatra does a remarkable job piecing together the story of a woman from the first century BCE about whom very little is actually known. Schiff pulls together many early sources, extrapolates as many facts as she possibly can, then pieces them into a coherent vision...
I LOVE Elif Shafak’s work and am working my way through her twelve novels. With every read I find a new favorite, but There Are Rivers in the Sky is my all-favorite so far. The book opens in 630 BCE, in Ninevah, the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire along the...
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