The Writing On The Wall

"The leopard stood squarely now, halfway between the bush and the white bed of river rock, and he had his golden eyes locked in on his adversary..."

When London based historian Walter Gordon is called upon to study a unique rock art discovery in a network of caves in South Africa's Cederberg mountains, he has the opportunity of a lifetime to help establish a UNESCO heritage site. But what begins as a scholarly mission soon unravels into something far more perilous.

Anna Burger, heir to Toegewy farm, joins Walter's team and is drawn into the mysteries etched on the walls of the hidden caves. As she ventures deeper, the land forces her to confront truths of her own life - about the past, her family and herself.

Meanwhile, a great predator stalks these mountains. The elusive leopard has ruled this wilderness for millennia, but its survival is under threat. Detectives Andre Le Roux and Henry Ngwenya wage their own battle against a ruthless poaching syndicate, but every step they take brings them closer to a bloody reckoning.

From the rugged peaks of the Cederberg to the foot of Table Mountain, the worlds of historians, criminals, and lawmen collide in a thrilling race against time.

The writing is on the wall, and the end is near. But for whom?

Eric Buchmann was born in Cape Town in 1998. After completing high school, he moved to the United Kingdom, where he earned a BA (Honours) in History from the Open University. He is currently pursuing a Master's degree in International Relations at the University of Portsmouth. When not writing or studying, he divides his time between reading, hiking and travelling the world. He lives in Budapest.

The Writing on the Wall is his debut book, inspired by an expedition to the Cederberg in 2024.