With such sparse media coverage of events in Africa today, and the short shrift most Western history textbooks give the continent, it’s no wonder Americans have developed a stereotyped view of Africa and Africans. This flies in the face of reality. The continent is vast, encompassing 54 nations and over 1.5 billion genetically diverse people who speak more than 1,500 distinct languages. And one of the most intriguing of those 54 nations is Botswana, a large, landlocked, and sparsely populated land bordering South Africa on the south. It’s the world’s biggest exporter of diamonds measured by their value. And the African coauthors who write as Michael Stanley capitalize on that fact in A Carrion Death. It’s the inaugural volume of their series of crime thrillers featuring Detective David “Kubu” Bengu of the Botswana Police Service. And a superior thriller it is, crammed with twists and turns.
A unique detective and a murder mystery that seems unsolvable
You’ve never met anyone like Detective Kubu before. The nickname means “hippo,” and it’s accurate. Kubu weighs in at 300 pounds, and he’s tall to boot. But you’d never confuse him with a rugby or American football player. That’s fat he carries, the result of a bottomless appetite. And he’s an opera lover. When driving alone, he sings along to recordings of Mozart, loudly, and badly. And (of course) he’s a brilliant investigator. But he is clueless when he learns about a corpse savaged by hyenas on the fringe of the Kalahari Desert. And he will grow increasingly confused and frustrated as first one, then another and another body turn up in a seemingly endless case. And, no, this is not the work of a serial killer. Something else is obviously going on.
A Carrion Death (Detective Kubu #1) by Michael Stanley (2008) 477 pages ★★★★★
A superb introduction to a great series
There are two principal (and several minor) strands in the plot. We follow Kubu and his several collaborators in a procedural account of what turns out to be a string of murders that may or may not be connected with each other. And we gain entry to the tense private conversations of the Hofmeyr family that owns and runs Botswana’s largest business, the Botswana Cattle and Mining Company, the BCMC. But the story is far more complex and involves many other players.
The principal actors we meet other than Superintendent Kubu are his irascible boss, three members of the Hofmeyr family—twins Dianna and Angus and their uncle, Cecil, who runs BCMC—plus two of the company’s employees, both of them geologists working one of its diamond mines, and a homicidal Angolan gangster as well as a witch doctor known as the Old Man.
In the course of Superintendent Kubu’s investigation we learn a great deal about the diamond trade, life in Botswana today, the enduring influence of superstition in a traditional society, and the application of scientific methods in modern policing. A Carrion Death is a superb introduction to what promises to be a compelling series of detective novels.
About the authors
Michael Stanley is the pen name of two long-time friends. Both are retired professors and businessmen who are natives of South Africa. They were born in Johannesburg. According to their author website, “Sears is a mathematician, specializing in geological remote sensing. Trollip is an educational psychologist, specializing in the application of computers to teaching and learning, and a pilot.” Close friends, they were on safari in Botswana when the idea for the Detective Kubu novels was born. Sears lives today on the south coast of South Africa. Trollip divides his time between Minneapolis, Denmark, and Cape Town. To date, the pair have completed eight novels in the Detective Kubu series published from 2008 to 2022.
For related reading
The most active author of detective stories set in Africa is the Ghanaian-American physician and writer Kwei Quartey. He has written numerous novels in two series, one featuring police detective Darko Dawson, the other a private eye named Emma Djan. I’ve reviewed most of these books, starting with Wife of the Gods (A fetish priest, an herbal healer, and a murdered AIDS outreach worker) and The Missing American (A nitty-gritty view of Ghana today in this inventive detective novel).
For other excellent mysteries and thrillers set in contemporary Africa, see:
- The Death of Rex Nhongo by C. B. George – A satisfying thriller set in Zimbabwe
- The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu – Zimbabwe through the eyes of a single mother
- My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite – Two Nigerian sisters and three murders
- The Night Ranger (John Wells #7) by Alex Berenson – An outstanding thriller set amid the refugee crisis in Kenya and Somalia
You might also enjoy my posts The best mysteries set in Africa, 30 outstanding detective series from around the world, and Top 20 suspenseful detective novels.
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