The beginning was bumpy but a fun read when you're in the mood for a 50s-era romantic suspense mystery. It has lots of rich people, colonialism, brash Americans, plucky young woman in a bind, communists - all set in foreign airports and an exotic island (I'm imagining Grace Kelly and William Holden in the movie...) ( )

If you like old-fashioned mystery and romance set in an exotic locale, this is a very fun read. M.M. Kaye wrote several of these atmospheric mystery romance novels which always incorporated some exotic setting she had been to as she and her husband moved all over the world. In the forward she writes that it is a Zanzibar which no longer exists, but one she saw and wanted to share before memories of it had faded into the sunset. While Death in Cyprus, which I highly recommend, is probably her best and most satisfying mystery, this one might have the most charm, and is a sentimental favorite.

Death in Zanzibar has a light and entertaining feel to the overall story and a very likable heroine in Dany Ashton. The characters are colorful and well-defined and blend perfectly with the time period. Death in Zanzibar very much feels like it belongs in another era. Lash is a young man-about-town, when young men-about-town were in every mystery. He slowly comes into his own while helping Dany perpetrate a ruse during their trip to Zanzibar and the House of Shade. The mystery of why her hotel room was broken into, and her passport stolen, deepens when a murder occurs. And then there is more.

Dany is sweet and endearing as she shows old-fashioned bravado during the course of the mystery. She will emerge from her mother's shadow and come into her own just as Lash does. There is, of course, an innocent and growing romance between the two. The reader knows how this will end long before they do, which is part of the old -fashioned charm of the read. Kaye makes good use of the exotic locale as we see it through the eyes of her heroine, who is also seeing it for the first time. While the beauty of the descriptive prose doesn’t reach the level of Death in Cyprus, it’s still quite lovely — this is M.M. Kaye, after all — and filled with charm because we as readers we are seeing it through the eyes of another.

Death in Zanzibar, while a bit lean, is a very fun and entertainingly old-fashioned mystery, with the values and mores of a bygone era. Perhaps the best way to describe it would be to say it has much the same feel as watching one of those early 1930s mystery films set in an exotic locale; the kind you catch late at night when you can't sleep and enjoy all the more because it was a pleasant surprise. All of Kaye's mysteries fit this bill and this one is perhaps my sentimental favorite. If you're searching for something intricate and complex, this isn't for you, but if you like your mystery and romance firmly ensconced on the old-fashioned side, you will enjoy this greatly, as I did. A fun summer read. ( )

A novel of young love and murder written before the time of political correctness. With this group of misfits, this book could be an ad for any type of alcoholic drink. We are teased by the naïve love of our teen age heroine, which turns out to be a red herring. She eventually falls for the other young man, who seems to face the possibility of becoming an alcoholic. ( )

What a hot mess! Was it a political thriller, murder mystery, or romance? All badly mostly. The two main would-be detectives were immensely dense and the remaining characters were so poorly drawn that it was hard to keep track of anyone. The plot twists made little to no sense and it just meandered through various exotic locales until it came to an utterly implausible and rather idiotic finish. I've got a few more of the the Death in... series and now I'm wondering if it is worth plowing through them.

I enjoyed this book which was an easy read. My major criticism is that its very dated which is a shame as it is likened to Agatha Christie whose books are timeless.

Dany is invited to stay in Zanzibar with her mother and step-father. Before she even leaves the UK her hotel room is searched and her passport taken. How she manages to travel is a story in itself leading to all kinds of problems when she eventually arrives straight in the middle of a murder. ( )