New Book: All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By

I'm about 200 pages into this and I think I'm finally starting to grasp what the book is about.

In 1942, during a cadet wedding at a military school in the American South, a silent chapel bell rings and the groom seemingly goes spontaneously mad. Using his ceremonial sword to kill his bride-to-be, his father and if not for the intervention of his brother, he'd his whole family before he kills himself.

Miles away, a young black child is hit with a force that shreds his clothes and causes him unbearable pain which quickly kills him, but no physical wounds.

The book cuts away to a few years later in Africa, where a British soldier visiting a missionary hospital hears a remarkable tale about vengeance against the white man by an ancient white jungle goddess, the basis for Haggard's She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed from the classic adventure book She.

At this point I was tempted to stop the book because while I have a familiarity with She, I hadn't read it and I was quite concerned that this book was attempting to build itself as an unofficial sequel and while the book has taken more of a Southern Gothic bent than rip roaring adventure book, I'm still a bit concerned that my own ignorance may be preventing me from following what the author is doing.