Lepan's Shadow

An international mystery that spans decades and continents, triggered by a death in Chile’s Atacama Desert.

Cliff West, a retired professor from Wellington, hauls the body of renowned anthropologist Antoine Lepan from a steam-shrouded hot pool at the El Tatio geysers. A young boy is blamed for Lepan’s death. To absolve the boy, Cliff must discover how the Frenchman met his fate on their pre-conference tour.

‘Our professions aren’t that different,’ Cliff tells the detective investigating Lepan’s background. ‘Ask the right questions, analyse the data, interpret your findings, draw your conclusions.’

Long haunted by the cost of his own outwardly successful career, Cliff focuses on the wider impacts of academic ambition. As the truth about Lepan unfolds, people and events from their past intersect with present-day conflicts and danger in the Atacama.

How far does Lepan’s shadow reach?

‘Beautifully crafted whodunnit with a realistic setting. I loved how it takes you on a journey to Chile, but mostly how it depicts, with humour and a touch of irony, the lives of a class of academics that is bordering on extinction.’ —Carolina Miranda, co-editor of The Foreign in International Crime Fiction, Transcultural Representation.