Showing The Hinterlands by Karen Mercury

From a land you've never heard of comes a story you'll never forget.

1896. In the vast network of the Niger Delta waterways, where palm oil and blood flow from the hinterlands, the ancient kingdom of Benin is under siege. Legendary trader and leopard hunter Brendan Donivan battles to protect his adopted homeland's sacred civilization from the colonial expansion of the British while balancing his commerce with the whiteman's world. Brendan's reality is fractured by the arrival of...

...New York anthropologist Elle Bowie, drawn to Africa by a dream. Amazed to discover the domain holds vast happiness and delights, she cannot reveal her true ambition. Against everything her mind and heart has trained her for, Elle has it bad for Brendan.

Brendan cannot love a woman in cahoots with the British. Elle cannot love any man.

Central in the scheming of the Oil Rivers citizens is the traitorous gnome Mateus, descended from Portuguese soldiers, the happy-go-lucky Texan Rip, who masquerades as Elle's husband, and the majestic and brutal General Ologboshere, in command of thousands of warriors.

As Brendan and Elle become mixed up in the political intrigues of the steamy jungle, the British forces bear down relentlessly upon them. They face the extinction of a way of life, trading hulks anchored in the rivers, advanced bronze artwork, and colossal war canoes. The Kingdom of Benin, the land of ritualistic human sacrifice and juju religion. The lives and loves of many hang in the balance in...THE HINTERLANDS