Murder Mystery in Kenya

 

Murder on Safari by Elspeth Huxley, Harper Brothers, 1939

              I found this book in a neighborhood little library. It is no longer available commercially, so if you want to read it, find a good library. It is a murder mystery set in Kenya in the 1930s written by prominent Kenyan author Elspeth Huxley.  Because she drew extensively on her knowledge of Africa, the setting is impeccable. The sights, smells and events of a bush safari are clearly evoked.

The story involves a luxury safari done with all the trappings and peopled by a number of odd characters.  People die. The tale jerks on occasionally buttressed by observations by the African staff on the eccentricities of the Europeans.   The plot is complicated and intriguing. It will keep you guessing, but the intrepid police inspector works it out in the end.

Aside from the plot, Huxley’s characters discuss the plight of rhinos, “poachers kill many rhinos so soon there will be none left alive.”  How prescient?  Note that this book and thus this sentiment was written in 1937.   The characters also debate the validity of big game hunting noting that a man with a high-powered rifle has a distinct advantage over a lion just resting after supper.  They wonder whether the undertaking is worthwhile, or even ethical.  Again, it is interesting to note that these types of discussions figured in Huxley’s Kenya ninety years ago.

I enjoyed the mystery and give it an A.

Implausible Kenyan Story?

 

Review of Rare Earth by Davis Bunn, Bethany House, 2012.

    I seek out books set in Kenya and this one is, sort of. The author takes great liberties with geography and facts. (Okay, it is fiction so he can do this). He uses place names, but little is where it ought to be. Same with tribes. He places Ndebele people in Kenya, They are from Zimbabwe; also Angola appears as Kenya’s neighbor.  The author posits that the Luo people come from near what “the English call Kilimanjaro.” Wrong on two counts. Luos live nowhere near the mountain.  And, although the English may call it Kilimanjaro, that is what the local people named it.  Kilimanjaro means mountain of coldness in Swahili. Luos also end up in one of the camps, north of Elgon, again hundreds of miles from their homeland. Interestingly, for the sake of the story, Mt. Elgon erupts. That and drought cause thousands to flee to camps. Bunn calls them refugee camps, but they are really camps for internally displaced persons. But he needs them to be refugee camps so he can invoke a UN presence, and a shadowy American mercenary outfit.

    Another nitpick: the author continually refers to the heat, even at dawn, in Nairobi and the highlands near Elgon. Come on! Those regions are over a mile high. They are rarely tropically hot.  

    The overly dramatic plot revolves finally around the title – the discovery and corruption around deposits of rare earth.  The Chinese and corrupt Kenyans figure in the theft, coverup and violence that the hero, operating secretly on behalf of the U.S. government with the connivance of Israelis and Kenyan elders, finally uncovers and resolves. It is a bit of a stretch.

    I give the book a C-.  Nice try, the plot was passable, but the setting needed to be more accurate.