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Detective David "Kubu" Bengu of the Botswana police made his first appearance in A CARRION DEATH a little over a year ago and was warmly received. For those unfamiliar with him, he is a man in his thirties, married to Joy, and got his nickname, which means "hippopotamus" in his mother tongue, Setswana as a boy, due to his size, but it has stuck because it is apt in several ways. Like the hippo, Kubu is deceptive; much of what goes on in him happens beneath the surface and, though superficially placid, he is quick to move when the occasion demands. Happily the parallels cease there - he is not aggressive, and he is very, very clever. Given what he must confront in THE SECOND DEATH, he needs to be. He is called to investigate two murders at an isolated bush camp, murders which are followed by others and by the mysterious disappearance of another. The camp, a tourist concession is run by two white ex-Zimbabweans, whose past history in what was once Rhodesia is at best murky, and the guests include a motley assortment - English sisters who are freelance journalists, a South African couple who deal in curios and watch birds, and, among others, Goodluck Tinubu, also formerly of Zimbabwe but now a highly respected head master in Botswana. It is he who turns up dead. And not, it would appear, for the first time. When his fingerprints are checked it appears that he actually died thirty years previously, in Rhodesia. Yet here he is, the apparent victim of a revenge killing despite his impeccable reputation. If that were all, Kubu might have had a chance of wrapping the case up as swiftly as the political authorities would like, nervous about its effect on the tourist trade, but sadly, some very unpleasant people are after whatever it was that Goodluck had in his possession when he died and, believing that Kubu has it, try to kidnap Joy to make him give it up. They reckoned without Joy. The two authors who write seamlessly as Michael Stanley (Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip) have followed up their first success with an equally attractive and beguiling work. Kubu is a rich and complex character without any of the usual tics and neuroses that seem to plague fictional police detectives as a rule. He is happily married, loves his mother and father, and is comfortable in his ample skin. He has learned to apply what lessons traditional values have to teach to his life as a modern policeman and does not appear to suffer over-much from what contradictions may arise. This is less sentimental a view of Botswana than Alexander McCall Smiths's, one that does not ignore the history of the countries amid which Botswana is uneasily perched and whose troubles threaten constantly to breach its borders. But it is a hopeful book as well. If Detective Kubu Bengu is in any way representative of the kind of people who populate Botswana, then its future ought to be secure. THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU is published in the UK under the title of A DEADLY TRADE.
Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, June 2009
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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