THE EMERALD HOTEL

About the Book

Spanning more than a century and three generations of ambition, The Emerald Hotel is rooted in the unforgiving beauty of southern Africa, where emeralds promise salvation but always at a fierce price.

In 1901 enslaved Musi, kills her Arab owner and frees her father only to lose him moments later. Emeralds scattered in the sand, around have caused her nothing but suffering and pain. To Musi, the stones are cursed but if she can bury them with her father, she believes he will enter the afterlife rich at last, beyond the reach of chains and a cruel life.

In 1949, Calvin Burns chases rumors of lost emeralds up the remote Luangwa River. For Calvin, the represents financial security, a means to build his hotel in America and a new life with the woman he loves. It seems Africa, however, knows all who search for riches in her borders may not live to find them.

The past resurfaces violently in 2006 when Americans Tom Dugan and Gabe Adams are running for their lives weighed down by thirty pounds of emeralds and the certainty they are being hunted. Colonel Zima has sent his finest trackers, and in the wilderness along the Luangwa, survival demands a reckoning.

Inspired by real gem-hunting expeditions in Zambia and stories gathered around warm and beckoning braai fires, along the Luangwa River, The Emerald Hotel blends adventure, history, and moral consequence into a powerful novel about legacy, greed and the price of dreams buried in the sand.

About the Author

Al Starner wrote THE EMERALD HOTEL after a gem hunting adventure in Zambia, Africa. An article about the trip first appeared in Rock and Gem Magazine. Al is a life long gem and mineral collector, big game hunter, pilot and skydiver. His work has been published in SOLDIER OF FORTUNE and FLYING MAGAZINE. Al gathered material for EMERALD around the campfires in southern Africa and along the shores of the great Luangwa River. His second novel, CHEYENNE DIAMONDS will be available next year.