Black Earth Rising

As a child, Kate Ashby was rescued from the horrific aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. She was adopted and brought up in Britain by Eve Ashby, a world-class international lawyer. Kate has long struggled to escape the shadow of her past, but is now returning to work as a legal investigator in the same chambers as Eve, under leading international lawyer Michael Ennis.

Eve's case prosecuting Simon Nyamoya begins at the International Criminal Court, but a shocking incident changes everything. To try and uncover the truth behind these events, Michael Ennis launches a new case and turns to Kate for help. They will be defending Alice Munezero, a Rwandan government official and an old friend of Michael and Eve's.

Still struggling with grief, Kate works with Michael to defend Alice Munezero from the charges laid against her in France. As shadowy forces try to prevent the truth being unearthed, Kate faces threats to her personal safety. Meanwhile Michael struggles with his health back in London. Canthey both continue forward to gain an acquittal for Alice?

Kate and Michael finish their work on Alice's case in France but are shocked when an indicted Rwandan and Congolese war criminal, Patrice Ganimana, implicated in the Genocide, arrives in the UK. Excited by the chance to prosecute him, Michael is unsettled to learn that an old rival is handling his defence. Meanwhile this new arrival prompts Alice Munezero to delay her own return to Rwanda.

Blake Gaines, who has been handling Ganimana's defence, seems in danger of falling foul of those paying his legal fees. Alice Munezero tells Michael, for the first time, of her connection to the Rwandan president, Bibi Mundanzi. Meanwhile Kate's rift with Michael deepens and she becomes increasingly driven to help extradite Ganimana to face justice.

Patrice Ganimana's warnings about Kate's safety are borne out when Kate and Alice are both attacked. But Kate, nevertheless, continues her search for the case file her mother had prepared against Ganimana years before.