Mysteries - Africa

The puppies had a nice afternoon out yesterday (in my opinion anyway). They spent a few hours at the groomers and have returned home bathed and shorn. Clyde is currently on the poof across the room, keeping an eye on me. Bonnie is in the kitchen lying beside the kitchen island as Jo prepares a peach crumble. They know that quite often when Jo is cooking that food sometimes falls from the sky at their feet. Not this time though, Bonnie.... lol!

The sun is breaking through the smoky haze at the moment. The light has a bit of an eerie yellowy quality. But even though you can still taste the haze there is a nice little breeze.

So, in my last entry on my exploration of the Mystery genre, I looked at authors who set their mysteries in France, books I've enjoyed and others that I'm looking forward to trying. Today I'm going to journey south to the continent of Africa. I've read a few mysteries set there and have recently bought a couple of others that are set there. On that preamble let's take a look.

Mysteries - Africa

Alexander McCall Smith

1. Alexander McCall Smith (Precious Ramotswe). I discussed Smith previously in an entry about Female Private Eyes. Smith has written a number of different series but his Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series featuring Precious Ramotswe as the owner of the subject Detective Agency is set in Botswana. I highlighted books 6 and 7 as they are the next books for me to read. I've fallen behind considerably as there are now 19 books in the series. I bought the first book because the cover attracted my attention and the synopsis sounded interesting. It's a gentle series peopled with fascinating characters, an exotic country and interesting mysteries. Here are the first three books.

a. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (#1 / 1998). I bought this shortly after my arrival in Comox and read it in 2003. It was one of those books that leaves you feeling very good.










"Precious Ramotswe has only just set up shop as Botswana's No.1 (and only) lady detective when she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. However, the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witch doctors."

b. Tears of the Giraffe (#2 / 2000). There was a TV series that was made based on the series. It featured Jill Scott as Precious and Anika Noni Rose as her faithful assistant, Grace Makutsi. It was a fantastic, most enjoyable series. It was unfortunate when two of the movers of the series, Anthony Minghella and Sidney Pollack died during the 1st season. I don't know if that's why it was never continued but it must have had an impact.






"Tears of the Giraffe takes us further into the life of the engaging and sassy Precious Ramotswe, the owner and detective of Botswana's only Ladies' detective agency. Among her cases are wayward wives, unscrupulous maids and a challenge to resolve a mother's pain for her son, who is long lost on the African plains. Mma Ramotswe's own impending marriage to that most gentlemanly of men, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, the promotion of her secretary to the dizzy heights of Assistant Detective and new additions to the Matekoni family, all brew up the most humorous and charmingly entertaining of tales."

c. Morality for Beautiful Girls (#3 / 2001).  If you prefer thrillers and lots of action, this series might not be for you. The stories are gentle but rich with characters and story-telling. This is the type of series I think I might enjoy most. It hearkens to some of my other favorites; the Bruno Chief of Police stories by Martin Walker, Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti series, etc. Stories where you see the country where the characters live, you get to see the characters and their families, the lives they lead, the food they eat, their activities. This is what you get with the Precious Ramotswe stories as well.





"Botswana PI Precious Ramotswe investigates the alleged poisoning of the brother of an important government official, and the moral character of four beauty contestants. When her business has money trouble, and problems arise at at her reliable fiance Mr J.L.B. Matekoni's Speedy Motors, she finds he is more complicated then he seems."

Emma Ruby-Sachs

2. Emma Ruby - Sachs. Sachs is a Canadian writer and lawyer, daughter of Clayton Ruby. She has written one book, a mystery set in South Africa. I read it in 2013 and enjoyed very much.

a. The Water Man's Daughter (2011). 












"In some ways, I'm not sure how I feel about this story. It kind of left me hanging at the end; some resolution, but many matters unsatisfied. At its simplest, it's the story of a murder, a Canadian businessman in South Africa trying to establish a water system is found murdered. His daughter comes to South Africa to find out about the murder, to connect with his ghost. She is linked with an African woman, involved in the fight for water rights; there stories intermingle, along with that of Zembe Afrika, the policewoman working to solve the case. It presents a culture I am totally unfamiliar with, the struggle for water rights in the poorer townships, the struggle against corrupt government/ businesses. A very interesting story, but I think I still wanted more. Worth reading. (4 stars)"

Malla Nunn

3. Malla Nunn. Nunn was born in Swaziland and moved to Australia and then on to the USA. She is both a screenwriter and novelist. From 2008 - 2014, she has written 4 books in her Detective Emmanuel Cooper mystery series set in South Africa. I've read the first book so far and have the next on my book shelf awaiting my enjoyment.

a. A Beautiful Place to Die (#1 / 2008).












"I picked this book by chance while looking through my local book store. The synopsis looked interesting and I hadn't read many mysteries set in Africa. I'm so glad I took a chance on it as I enjoyed the story immensely, right from the first few paragraphs. 

The story is set during apartheid and the plot revolves around the shooting death of an Afrikaner police captain in a small village. An English police detective is sent form Johannesburg to work the crime. He suddenly finds himself in the midst of tension with the Security Services who want to find a Communist threat as the cause for the murder and also from the Police Captain's sons, hard core Afrikaners who provide a constant threat to Sgt Emmanuel Coopers well-being. 

The story moves along so very nicely and highlights the tensions implicit in the apartheid system; from the ruling white Afrikaners through the mixed - race peoples (the coloreds) to the blacks (the Zulu races). The characters are well-crafted, I particularly liked Emmanuel Cooper and the Zulu constable, Shabalala (excuse any spelling mistakes) and the Jewish doctor, Schneider (once again apologies for any errors in spelling). Cooper and the story itself remind me of Arcady Renko in the Martin Cruz Smith books set in Russia. Cooper also is a man in the middle, a police officer trying to solve a murder but having to deal with the tensions caused by apartheid, and the constant threats from the Security Services, even the threat of physical violence to his person. 

Malla Nunn has crafted an excellent story, creating tension and making you want to keep reading. My only slight dissatisfaction and the reason I gave it a 4 (actually a 4.5) was the ending. While I was satisfied with it overall, it was a bit pat. However, if you want a tense, well-written mystery story, you have to give this a try. I will move on to the next book."

b. Let the Dead Lie (#2 / 2010).












"DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, 1953. Forced to resign from his position of Detective Sergeant and re-classified as 'mixed race' after an incident involving a young black woman, Emmanuel Cooper winds up powerless and alone in the tough coastal city of Durban, mixing laboring with surveillance work for his old boss, Major van Nickerk. Patrolling the freight yards one night, he stumbles upon the body of a young white boy and the detective in him cannot, or will not, walk away. When two more bodies - this time an older English woman and her maid - are discovered at his boarding house, he unwittingly becomes the prime suspect in a triple murder case."

The other two books in the series are -
- Silent Valley (2012)
- Present Darkness (2014)

And now for two 'new' series for me

Jassy Mackenzie

4. Jassy Mackenzie. Mackenzie lives in South Africa and has created the Jade de Jong mystery series. She was inspired to write her first thriller after being carjacked at gun point in her driveway. since 2008, she has written 5 books in the series. I have the second. The series consists of -

-  Random Violence (2008)
- Stolen Lives (2011)
- The Fallen (2012)
- Pale Horses (2013)
- Bad Seeds (2017)

a. Stolen Lives.












"When wealthy Pamela Jordaan hires PI Jade de Jong as a bodyguard after her husband Terrance disappears, Jade thinks keeping an eye on this anxious wife will be an easy way to earn some cash. But when a determined shooter nearly kills them both and Jade finds Terrance horrifically tortured and barely alive, she realizes that she has been drawn into a wicked game.

At the same time, her relationship with police superintendent David Patel is on the rocks, and things only get more complicated when his son is kidnapped and his wife is blackmailed. It soon becomes clear that the kidnapping and the attempted killings of Pamela and her husband are tied to a human trafficking ring that stretches from Johannesburg to London."

James McClure

5. James McClure. McClure was born in Johannesburg in 1939 and died in Oxford in 2006. He started as a journalist and then in 1971 wrote his first crime novel, The Steam Pig, featuring Afrikaner Lieutenant Tromp Kramer and his Bantu Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi. From 1971 - 1991 he wrote 8 books in the series. I've recently purchased the first two books.

a. The Steam Pig (1971). 

"In the debut mystery featuring Lieutenant Kramer and Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi set in South Africa, a beautiful blonde has been killed by a bicycle spoke to the heart, Bantu gangster style. Why?"

b. The Caterpillar Cop (1972).

"Handsome twelve-year-old Boetie was strangled and stabbed. Was he the victim of a pedophile? On whom was he spying?"








The other books in the series are -
- The Gooseberry Fool (1974)
- Snake (1975)
- The Sunday Hangman (1977)
- The Blood of an Englishman (1980)
- The Artful Egg (1984)
- The Song Dog (1991)

OK, folks, there you go. Food for thought? Enjoy the rest of your week!