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Crime writing steeped in the African bush will keep you guessing and laughing in turns.When a skinned body is discovered on the side of the railway line deep in the Matabele bush, Detective Inspector Jabulani Sibanda, along with his sidekicks, Sergeant Ncube and the troublesome Land Rover, Miss Daisy, is back on the trail of a murderer. As more girls go missing and more bones are discovered, Sibanda realises they are dealing with the signature of a vicious serial killer who chooses the train show more as his killing field.Suspects abound, and the trio pursues the leads relentlessly, but the warped psychopath is elusive. Has Sibanda met his match? To complicate matters, his unrequited love interest, Berry Barton, is back on his radar, Gubu police station politics are as partisan as ever and Sgt Ncube, in an attempt to equal the brilliance of his boss, has discovered the wonders of the Oxford English Dictionary, to hilarious results.With winter tightening its grip, and drought and hardship threatening the population, Sibanda uses a risky strategy to trap his nemesis. Can he pull it off?The adventures come thick, fast and furious, punctuated by Sibanda's explosive sarcasm and Ncube's explosive gut, as once again we are plunged into the wildlife world that Miss Daisy tolerates, the detective revels in and the sergeant fears so desperately. show lessTags
Member Reviews
I am not sure that charming is the word I should use for this mystery -- it can be gruesome in places - but this is the word I want to use.
Third in a series, it is the first one I read and besides a few notes that probably will spoil some of actions in the first two novels, it works on its own.
Meet Detective Jabulani Sibanda - assigned to a small town in the bush of Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe. He went to school to England and because of that is the only professional detective - despite what his boss may think. And he is not exactly patient enough to just take the daily needling from Cold War (as the boss is called behind his back).
This time it all starts when a train hits an elephant in the middle of a long stretch of railroad - show more and the mutilated body of a woman is found nearby. It does not take long for the Jabu to realize that this is a part of serial killer spree and things take off from there. His sergeant should have sounded like a simpleton but somehow the author manages to make him somewhat likeable (and the sergeant's attempts at improving his English by reading a dictionary causes even more confusion than usual).
Add to that a love story, a brilliant depiction of rural life in Zimbabwe and a somewhat side story that does not make sense until the dots get connected and you realize when it happened and this is one gem of a novel - despite the gruesome depictions of murder and wild life (if you cannot stand watching the documentaries on National Geographic where a pride of lions kill an animal, you probably won't like the description here either).
Now I need to go find the other 2 books that had been published in this series... show less
Third in a series, it is the first one I read and besides a few notes that probably will spoil some of actions in the first two novels, it works on its own.
Meet Detective Jabulani Sibanda - assigned to a small town in the bush of Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe. He went to school to England and because of that is the only professional detective - despite what his boss may think. And he is not exactly patient enough to just take the daily needling from Cold War (as the boss is called behind his back).
This time it all starts when a train hits an elephant in the middle of a long stretch of railroad - show more and the mutilated body of a woman is found nearby. It does not take long for the Jabu to realize that this is a part of serial killer spree and things take off from there. His sergeant should have sounded like a simpleton but somehow the author manages to make him somewhat likeable (and the sergeant's attempts at improving his English by reading a dictionary causes even more confusion than usual).
Add to that a love story, a brilliant depiction of rural life in Zimbabwe and a somewhat side story that does not make sense until the dots get connected and you realize when it happened and this is one gem of a novel - despite the gruesome depictions of murder and wild life (if you cannot stand watching the documentaries on National Geographic where a pride of lions kill an animal, you probably won't like the description here either).
Now I need to go find the other 2 books that had been published in this series... show less
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5+ Works 30 Members
Series
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Detective Inspector Jabulani Sibanda; Sergeant Ncube; Miss Daisy (Land Rover)
- Important places
- Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, Africa
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 4
- Popularity
- 3,950,610
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
