When they cross paths after years apart, Tracker entertains Leopard's request to join the search team.

James situates the book's soul in the bond he fuses between Tracker and Leopard, a shape-shifter with 'whiskers and wild hair that made him look more lion than panther.' (As the name implies, he can mutate at will into a leopard, which he prefers to human form). James seemingly employs this narrative sleight of hand to test our instincts as readers. We are to believe the boy is the book's center-the key to unlocking its dark labyrinth of secrets-but, really, he exists somewhere at the periphery, always out of reach. Again, this is James we are dealing with, and even the most spelled-out facts are not entirely what they at first appear. All who have sought his whereabouts have come to fatal ends. (Their conflicting personalities bring to mind Marvel's space-age eccentrics from Guardians of the Galaxy.) Tale of the child, though, warrants curiosity: a mysterious orbit of death surrounds him. To find the missing child, Tracker joins a ragtag crew. His travels take him across multiple kingdoms aswarm with flying beasts, cursed children, bush fairies, river witches, shape-shifters, Blood Swamp trolls, and 'night demons from an age before this age.' Luckily enough, Tracker manages to mostly avoid the crush of evil forces along the way. Tolkien, Toni Morrison, Gabriel García Márquez, and George R.

The result is something of a grab bag of inspiration, pulling from J. Those questions come at the outset of a journey so fat with adventure and emotional complexity it feels mythic in scope. 'What does the bearer do with the thing he can't bear, throw it off?' Tracker speculates from the dungeon.

That is where Black Leopard, Red Wolf commences it is narrated with attentive hindsight from his point of view. He is also a troubled soul being held captive by an unnamed jailer after failing to find a missing child. The heart and hero of the novel, Tracker has a special gift for 'for finding what would rather stay lost' his nose can trace people by their scent across seemingly impossible terrains and distances. 'My name was my father's possession, so I left it by his gate,' he explains. Our guide is an expert hunter-investigator-mercenary known as Tracker.

Black wolf red leopard