To The Lions by Holly Watt

To the Lions by Holly Watt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Human hunting--not a new concept in literature or movies. In 1924 Richard Cornell wrote a short story called The Most Dangerous Game upon which many movies such as The Naked Man, The Running Man and, even to some extent, The Hunger Games are based. In 2016, a leading tourism expert predicted in a UK newspaper that hunting humans may well be big business in about 100years. It could be used at stag dos, tourist offerings, professional community building or even as a televised reality program!

In this book, Watt combines these concepts with the story of the lives of people such as Marie Colvin, an American war correspondent killed in Syria, about whom a documentary has recently been made. Here are two women journalists working for the London Post who lie and manipulate others to track down big stories about world issues. One, I'd say the main character of the piece, Casey, is incognito as a glitzy playgirl, tracking down a tale, when she overhears from the neighboring booth, an American, quite drunkenly regaling his fellow high rollers with a story of picking off a human with a sniper rifle for kicks. Although she cannot believe it possible she takes the tidbit to her editor and she and fellow journalistic detective, Miranda, decide to pursue the story.
They are, at first, pounding the pavement, hitting the phones and internet only in England but soon the trail leads to the deserts of Libya and the refugee camps there. The women head to Northern Africa in the company of Casey's former love, a retired soldier who seems to have PTSD though it is never quite spelled out.
Unlike the movies and stories that began this review, the prey here is a single person residing in a fenced in camp miles into the desert. Unsuspecting, so not running, like a fish in a bowl, with no place to run if they knew of the danger. Sort of like those ritzy nature preserves in which animals are kept safe and fed for the sole purchase of being shot by a rich " hunter ". Only here the game is human, but the " hunter " is still rich and seeking to mark off the thrill of the kill on the bucket list.
Unlike Marie Colvin, Miranda and Casey are not heavy smokers, drinkers or involved in serial, short lived sexual relations. Miranda is married, but we never meet her husband and he certainly isn't of any importance to either her or the story or the reader. Casey, on the other hand, is portrayed as being hopelessly in love with Ed, the retired soldier, although he uses and manipulates him despite his obvious fragility. She pushes him on and on, even though she knows one of the hunters became so despondent after a kill that he committed suicide. To be honest, Ed was the only human and humane character in the entire book. Miranda wanted the story, Casey proclaims she wanted to end the business of human killing through the story. Miranda is the most honest but both are relentless and uncaring in their pursuit of it and in the revelations once the whole is known, without any consideration at all about what is now carelessly referred to as Collateral Damage.
Callous, empty, unfeeling, arrogant, manipulative, not worthy of admiration--Casey and Miranda.

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