Gregory's Story

“Roger Kean writes like the rest of us breathe… effortlessly.”
— Goodreads author Summer Michaels

A heavy burden rides the shoulders of young Gregory Hilliard—to discover the fate of a father he never knew. Did the elder Hilliard die with Hicks Pasha’s army at El Obeid in 1883 or, as his mother fervently hopes, did he somehow escape the massacre there by the fanatic Mahdist Dervishes?

And then there is the puzzle of his real name. Is he who he thinks he is? Born and raised in Cairo, fluent in native languages, Gregory is pitched into the heat of war after his mother dies. The teenager makes his way by joining General Kitchener’s Nile campaign to retake the Sudan from the Khalifa’s Mahdist armies. In doing so Gregory hopes to find out what happened to his father. Two spies—Edward and Richard Rainbow—help in his quest, brothers with their own dark secret. But his greatest support comes from the Ja’alin Zaki, the love of his young life, his friend and soul-mate.

In a world that refuses to recognize the right of young men to love and in an era that looks down on the “inferior” natives, Gregory faces his most difficult battle for personal happiness. Success will bring him and Zaki fulfilment but also unravel a tragic and at the same time life-enhancing mystery with its roots in far away England… and in the solving of it, one which might yet rip the two lovers apart.

“Gregory’s Story” is the companion to the Goodreads.com March 2013 M/M Romance and Queereaders Book of the Month choice “A Life Apart”. While “Gregory’s Story” stands alone as a novel, the events are greatly enriched by having first read “A Life Apart”, which features Edward and Richard Rainbow, who appear as Gregory’s companions, some 13 years on.