Contemporary Botswana but this is not the land of Mma Ramotswe of The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency. This is a dark, tough Botswana of diamond smuggling and corruption, and this stars Assistant Superintendent David Kubu Bengu. I liked him which is good news for he’s going to reappear in several more books. The traditional cultural background is here but this is a modern land where global influences prevail. It’s good.
A stunning debut crime novel set against a backdrop of poachers, witch doctors, diamond smugglers and corruption...They find the first body near a waterhole considered magical by the local bush people. A string of clues suggests that the victim was murdered and his identity hidden. For Assistant Superintendent David Kubu Bengu, it's obvious from the start that sinister forces are at work.
A convivial figure on the surface, Kubu is a clever and resourceful lawman, well-versed in Botswana's deadliest secrets. As he follows a blood-soaked trail he uncovers a chain of crimes linked to the most powerful figures in the country - influential enemies who will stop at nothing to remove those who stand in their way...
Michael Stanley is the writing team of native Africans Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. The two friends have had many adventures together, including tracking lions at night, fighting bush fires on the Savuti plains in northern Botswana, surviving a charging elephant and losing their navigation maps while flying over the Kalahari. Michael Sears lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. Stanley Trollip divides his time between South Africa and Minneapolis, MN.