Award-winning novelist Raymond Hutson returns with To Slaughter a Camel, the long-awaited sequel to his acclaimed debut Topeka, ma’shuge. Grounded in realism and shaped by moral complexity, the novel offers a deeply human take on modern espionage that prioritizes character, consequence, and interior struggle over spectacle.
To Slaughter a Camel follows Erika Harder, a nurse practitioner whose life is already fractured when she is unexpectedly recruited into the shadow world of United States intelligence. What begins as cautious excitement quickly turns catastrophic during a mission in Madrid that ends in a deadly explosion at a CIA station, killing seven of her colleagues. Stranded in the aftermath with Guneet Jodal, a translator whose loyalties remain unclear, Erika is forced to navigate grief, suspicion, and the disquieting realization that service often demands more than it gives.
Rather than offering a fast-paced spy fantasy, Hutson crafts a slower, heavier narrative that lingers on detail and emotional weight. Hospital corridors, commuter trains, and trauma bays are rendered with tactile precision before the story widens into covert offices, foreign stations, and the quiet mechanisms of power. The intelligence world is not romanticized. Recruitment is invasive, authority is impersonal, and purpose comes at a steep psychological cost.
In its review, Literary Titan praises the novel’s deliberate pacing and lived-in realism, noting that Hutson’s writing allows grief and moral tension to settle before the danger sharpens. The review highlights the book’s nuanced examination of control, belonging, and the uneasy line between being chosen and being consumed.
With its morally gray characters and emphasis on the psychological toll of secrecy, To Slaughter a Camel will resonate most with readers who value espionage thrillers driven by character depth and emotional authenticity. It is a novel about loyalty tested under pressure, and about what remains when ideals collide with reality.
To Slaughter a Camel is available now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Readers can purchase their copy online and through select retailers.
Readers can begin To Slaughter a Camel today by accessing a free preview on Amazon. Click here to experience the opening chapters and step into Erika Harder’s world of loss, secrecy, and moral reckoning by reading the sample now.
About the Author
Raymond Hutson received his MFA in Creative Writing from Queens College at Charlotte in 2006. His short stories and poems have appeared in Red Fez, Open Road Review, Cirque: Journal of Alaska and the Pacific Rim, Short Story America Anthology, and Whitefish Review. His debut novel, Topeka, ma’shuge, was released in 2014 and won the Next Generation Indie Grand Prize Award for Fiction in 2015. His second novel, Finding Sgt. Kent, received a Silver IP Medal for Military Fiction in 2019.
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Company Name: Literary Titan
Contact Person: Sheryl at Gilliss Books
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Country: United States
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