Deadly Harvest
So the case languishes, until newly-appointed Detective Samantha Khama, first female detective of the CID in Botswana, makes it her business to take on cases related to women and children. Her concern is tied to her close friend, Segametsi Mogomotsi, who disappeared when they were 14. Segametsi was a real person who was abducted and killed for muti, the practice of using human parts in powerful witchcraft, and the authors use fiction to bring light on a true situation. Years later, Samantha is reminded of her friend when yet another young girl disappears, and her father takes things into his own hands in his desperate search for her.
Detective Kubu is still loving life with his wife, Joy, and their beloved daughter, Tumi, who’s now 3. He is assigned to mentor Samantha, a young, bright, intense young woman who is immensely aware of the need to prove herself in a male-dominated workplace and society. He is also assigned to protect an upcoming young politician, who is murdered. Soon the crimes begin to converge, and Kubu and Samantha become convinced that they are chasing a killer who not only traffics in children but who covers his tracks with a deadly miasma of terror, so much so that no one wants to speak out against him. A witchdoctor who claims to be invisible and who has a series of steps in place before he’ll show himself, a witchdoctor who involves the one seeking power and protection in actual murder and thereby buys their silence with complicity, is a powerful enemy, but Kubu and Samantha will not be deterred in their quest to bring him and his grisly trade to light.
Deadly Harvest
The balance between culture, history, and modernization is always intriguing to me. I think I’d enjoy this book!
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A white man’s body stripped and left for the hyenas at a Kalahari water hole introduces a complex case for Botswana detective David “Kubu” Benga in Stanley’s atmospheric debut.The condition of the body – missing teeth, no clothes, missing arm – indicates that the killers may have wanted to hide the victim’s identity. Kubu’s investigation ruffles feathers among the white powers that be at the game preserve and the Botswana Cattle and Mining Company (BCMC), a conglomerate from colonial days that now has little to do with cattle and much to do with diamonds.Kubu doesn’t mind ruffling feathers though he’s an easygoing fellow himself who enjoys good food and drink about as much as anyone could – hence the nickname Kubu – which means hippo. Viewpoint shifts between Kubu’s investigation and various other characters – killers, schemers, business people, victims and innocents.The case takes Kubu into boardrooms and across the country’s dusty roads and open country. It gives us a look at Africa’s complex economic structure, the diamond industry and a feel for the friction between modern and traditional customs.Kubu is a modern man with a western-style house and habits who honors and respects his parents’ conservative old-fashioned ways. He’s an engaging character with a likable wife and an absorbing home life.Stanley’s first in the series is a window on a changing Africa, full of the sights, smells and tensions of a place with large disparities between rich and poor, black and white, traditional and modern.The few problems with this promising debut concern length and pace – Stanley (pseudonym for writing team Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip) gives a bit too much away with his multiple viewpoints and it takes Kubu a bit too long to catch up. An immersing read, nonetheless.