Category Archives: Michael Stanley

Review: The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu by Michael Stanley

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The third of 14 books I plan to read for the medium level of the Global Reading Challenge takes place in Botswana and is the second ‘Detective Kubu’ book by Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. The book is published as A Deadly Trade outside the US.

At a tourist camp in the lush northern part of Botswana the bodies of two guests are discovered early one morning while a third guest has disappeared, apparently back to nearby Zimbabwe. When authorities realise that there may be political and/or international ramifications arising from the case Assistant Superintendent David Bengu, known as Kubu which means hippo in Setswana, is sent from Gaborone to lead the investigation. Ably assisted by local Detective Sergeant Joseph “Tatwa” (giraffe) Mooka the pair soon discover that everyone at the camp has something to hide and that nothing is what it appears. The first of many twists in the case is that one of the two dead men, school teacher Goodluck Tinubu, is recorded as having died thirty years earlier in the bloody Rhodesian civil war.

There is much to like about this book. Kubu is a charming character and the portrayal of his work and family life is a refreshing change from the tormented lone wolf coppers we see so much of. He manages to maintain a civilised relationship with his immediate superior, is happily married to his first wife and even has a sound relationship with his parents. This in particular provides an interesting angle as it depicts the differences in outlook and behaviour between the generations. Other characters are nicely drawn too, including Kubu’s workaholic boss Jacob Mabaku, his colleague on this investigation Tatwa who is newly qualified and still learning the ropes and his delightful wife Joy. The collection of misfits and outsiders who have made their home at the Jackalberry Camp also intrigue, none of them being stereotypical and all of them having very believable reasons for ending up in their present circumstances.

The authors have also done a good job with the historical and political backdrop to this story, dealing relatively lightly but intelligently with both the Rhodesian war and its aftermath and the need for a delicate handling of the relationship between Botswana and the troubling neighbouring Zimbabwean Government. I’m sure it would have been easy to have turned the book into a lecture about these subjects but avoiding this trap made the story much stronger and more thought provoking as readers are left to draw their own conclusions.

I did however find the book a little too long. The story itself felt slightly more complicated than it needed to be and for me it dragged in the middle portion as there was much driving across country and relaying of information from one jurisdiction to another which was unnecessarily repetitive and slowed down the pace. That aside though The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu is an entertaining read and you’d be hard pressed to find a book more evocative of its image-rich, exotic location. The inclusion of two maps and a cast of characters (with phonetic pronunciations) is the icing on this very delicious cake and I am looking forward to a third installment of this series.

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This book has been reviewed at Aust Crime Fiction and Crime Watch

I reviewed the first book in the series, A Carrion Death, for last year’s Global Reading Challenge.

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My rating 3.5/5
Author website http://www.detectivekubu.com/default.aspx
Publisher Harper Collins [2009]
ISBN 9780061883248
Length 441 pages
Format eBook (ePub)
Book Series #2 in the Detective Kubu series
Source I bought it

Extreme Reading

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I have officially completed the extreme level of the 2010 Global Reading Challenge.

This required me to read 3 books set in different countries of Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America, South America plus two books set in Antarctica and a wildcard book set in any time or place new to me. Because that wasn’t quite complicated enough I added my own slant that all the books had to be by new-to-me authors.

Participating in this challenge opened my reading up to 21 new authors, many of whom I wouldn’t otherwise have read. For some of them a single exposure will be enough but many will be reappearing on my reading list in the not too distant future. In fact I’ve already read and/or ordered additional titles from several of the terrific authors discovered on my virtual tour around the globe where I met an array of fascinating people and learned a thing or three I didn’t know.

Here’s my final list of 21 books

Africa

Antarctica

Asia

Australasia

Europe

North America

South America

Wildcard (any time or place new to me)

And here are all the places I’ve visited virtually


View Larger Map

Thanks to Dorte of DJs Krimiblog for conceiving of and hosting the 2010 Global Reading Challenge. It was a hoot and lived up to all aspects of its name and I would encourage you to sign up for the 2011 version of the challenge (in which I am reliably informed you won’t have to read books set in Antarctica to be considered an extremist).

Review: A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley

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A human body that has been picked over by hyenas is found near a resort in a remote part of Botswana. There are few clues to the person’s identity other than it’s a white person. Assistant Superintendent David ‘Kubu’ Bengu needs to use all his ingenuity to find out who the person is and how they ended up in such a predicament. His investigations take him in many directions including to the most influential company in the country which incorporates diamond mines among its many interests.

The character of Kubu is one the outstanding features of this novel. He is a happily married, opera-loving, overweight chap whose childhood nickname of Kubu (meaning hippo) has stuck through to his adulthood. He is also a tenacious and clever detective who is willing to access help from whatever source he can find it. Although he does have a couple of odd quirks that crime writers love to give their protagonists (singing opera while driving across the country for example), Kubu is still a very natural and realistic character. He gets on well with his boss (who is neither a moron nor a monster) and even hosts a dinner party with his wife Joy for family and friends. Such things are perfectly normal in real life but stood out for me here as being the kind of thing you don’t see a lot of in crime fiction.

Given that I primarily read A Carrion Death as part of my fulfillment for the 2010 Global Challenge I was pleased it evoked such a sense of its location. The vast distances that Kubu has to travel in order to carry out his investigations and the remote desert setting for several key events acted together to give a strong sense of the relatively sparsely populated and land-locked country. Although in some ways it is quite different to the country depicted in Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series the importance given to all family relationships is a common trait between the two Botswanas. Here the family element is demonstrated repeatedly, most memorably for me when Kubu travels to South Africa and observes many beggars which he says would never happen in his country as people would be too ashamed to let even distant relations resort to such measures.

The book did suffer a little from ‘first book syndrome’ where every idea the authors had seemed to be thrown into the mix with the consequence that some of the threads were not terribly well thought through or relevant (the witchdoctor for example really added neither local flavour nor plot development). Tighter editing of these portions and the several repetitions of ‘the case to date’ segments might have made a dent in the book’s excessive length which would, in my humble opinion, have made it a better product. However the complex story does unfold well, including the time jumps in the first third of the novel, and the main thread is resolved in a manner in keeping with the rest of the story which is becoming something of a rarity these days.

Michael Stanley is a pseudonym for two authors, Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, but however they apportion the writing tasks their collaboration appeared seamless to me. A Carrion Death is a thoroughly enjoyable romp of a tale and you’d be hard pressed not warm to the character of Kubu. I’m certainly looking forward to reading the second novel in the series soon.

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My rating 4/5

Publisher: Headline [2008]; ISBN: 9780755344062; Length 557 pages; Setting: Botswana, present-day.

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A Carrion Death has been reviewed at Mysteries in Paradise and at Euro Crime