Deer Keeper

The West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand is a land of dense bush, rushing rivers, and a coastline of spectacular beauty in the shadow of the Southern Alps. It is wild wet country, a pioneering land that breed’s resilient people.

Three generations have wrested a farm from virgin bush and the McCorkindales share a remote valley with the wild deer that Hamish McCorkindale hunted in his youth and now farms in a nascent deer farming industry.

Hamish is duty bound to carry on his legacy…. until fate intervenes. A powerful corporation wants the land that holds his heart and a police Armed Offenders Squad want him for murder. Even for those born on the ‘Coast’ resilience may not be enough.

Memorable characters contribute to the events that follow; a Vietnam vet helicopter meat hunter, a vindictive policeman, a fisherman home from Antarctic seas, and a lawyer whose connections go to the very top in New Zealand's capital city.

This is a quintessential New Zealand story. No other place can bring together the unique strands of this saga. It is a gripping pioneer adventure, a love story of a man for his wife and the rugged land that formed him, and a tale of his fight against arrogant power defending the legacy entrusted to him. Here, both hunted man and wild stag, merge with the world of raw nature that bred them both.