A Carrion Death
Michael Stanley, Author . Harper $23.95 (467p) ISBN 978-0-06-125240-2
This impressive debut from Stanley, the South African writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, introduces overweight assistant superintendent David Bengu of the Botswana Police Department, whose nickname is, fittingly, Kubu (Setswanan for hippopotamus). In investigating the case of a partially consumed human body found in a remote area of a game reserve, Kubu keeps running across tangential links to Botswana Cattle and Mining, the country's largest company. As more people connected to the case turn up dead, Kubu realizes that multiple murder may be just the byproduct of a much more heinous crime. The intricate plotting, a grisly sense of realism and numerous topical motifs (the plight of the Kalahari Bushmen, diamond smuggling, poaching, the homogenization of African culture, etc.) make this a compulsively readable novel. Despite a shared setting with Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, this fast-paced forensic thriller will resonate more with fans of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta.
Reviewed on: 02/25/2008
Release date: 04/01/2008
Genre: Fiction
Other - 512 pages - 9780061632839
Open Ebook - 512 pages - 9780061632792
Hardcover - 467 pages - 9780061252402
Paperback - 467 pages - 9780061252419
Peanut Press/Palm Reader - 512 pages - 9780061632822
Other - 512 pages - 9780061871610
Open Ebook - 1 pages - 9781435679146