Winner, 2026 Hawthorne Prize
2026 American Fiction Awards, Winner Best Women's Fiction
2026 American Fiction Awards, Finalist Best Multicultural Fiction
First Place Winner, 2026 CIBA CLUE Award
Winner, 2025 Literary Global Book Awards Best Multicultural Fiction; Finalist, Best Mystery
Suspense and Women's Fiction
Winner, 2025 Firebird Awards Multicultural Fiction and Suspense
Winner, 2026 International Impact Books Award Best Women's Fiction
Winner, 2026 Midwest Independent Publishers Award for Mystery/Suspense
Finalist, 2025 American Writing Awards Book of the Year; Winner, Best Women's Fiction;
Finalist, Suspense/Thriller; Finalist, Multicultural Fiction
PenMaster Global: 2026 Best Women's Fiction; 2026 Finalist for Mystery/Suspense
Positive Impact Award: 2026 Winner for Positive Impact Fiction; Winner for the 2026 Legacy Award; Winner for the 2026 Gold Impact Award
Big Book Love, 2026 January Book of the Month
Readers' Favorite Five Star Review
Second Place, 2025 Book Fest Awards Thriller/Suspense and Women's Thriller/Suspense
Julia Wilde is one of the best wildlife cinematographers in the business. But while on location in southern Africa, she finds herself unfairly blamed for an accident that leaves several crew members dead. Blacklisted by the movie industry, she takes a job in the film department at a Midwestern university only to discover that tenure depends on her making a movie.
With a small crew of talented filmmaking friends in tow, Julia heads back to Zimbabwe to make a documentary about the Mambas, a fierce all-female anti-poaching unit who risk their lives every day to protect endangered species.
But as Julia soon learns, being behind the lens is no protection from poachers who will do whatever it takes to protect their business and keep this movie from seeing the light of day.
