The mysteries by Michael Stanley—a pen name for the team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip—have a somewhat muddled publishing history. A DEADLY COVENANT is the seventh in the team's Detective Kubu series, and is published by White Sun Books, which only publishes this author ... so is probably best defined as self-publishing. Still, it's worth taking a look at this title to add it to the shelf if you've started a collection of the series, or have an interest in Sub-Saharan Africa as a locale for mysteries.
"Kubu" is a nickname that means hippopotamus, for Detective Sergeant David Bengu of the Bostwana Criminal Investigation Department. It's an unfortunate nickname, prone to disrespect, but this detective usually feels he's made a connection with people when they start using it. (Glass half full.) Being sent on a five-day trip to distant Shakawe with the department's pathologist, Ian MacGregor, looks likely to expose all of Kubu's insecurities and inexperience. But MacGregor is genial and supportive, and at first it looks like they just need to identify a long-buried skeleton as human, so an irrigation project can continue.
However, the crime scene quickly grows complicated, with multiple Bushman bodies suggesting a long-ago massacre; then a local counsellor gets murdered, and Kubu finds himself in the minority in believing that the lone Bushman is the area might not be responsible. Not only is he swimming upstream against prejudice against the Bushman, but there's some sort of collusion going on in the settlement's government and those pressing the water project forward.
Eventually, Kubu learns some ways to keep the investigation going, like telling a local leader, "We don't want some civil-rights lawyer getting the Bushman off on the grounds that we did a bad job, do we?"
The mystery moves briskly and has an intriguing plot. It does, however, feel a bit dated, in both the clumsiness of the investigation and the local real estate corruption, and in Detective Kubu's unsophisticated approach. Those who prefer ethnic portrayals to be written by members of those ethnic groups will find this an uncomfortable narrative. This again suggests that the series is no longer timely. Like Arthur Upfield's "Bony" series set in Australia, Michael Stanley's books represent a very different time with different expectations of both authors and characters.
Despite this caution, the books have support from Ghanaian-American author Kwei Quartey. So, go ahead a pick up the latest in the series—then let your thoughts engage with our changing cultures, while you watch Kubu solve the multiplying crimes around him.
PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.
No comments:
Post a Comment