In the April edition of Saffamag, I related how Lady Luck has played a huge role in my life. Because of her, far more good things have happened in my life than I would have predicted when I graduated from Wits in 1971. And it seems that she still has an eye on me! By Stanley Trollip
The eighth mystery in our Detective Kubu series, which is set in Botswana, A Deadly Covenant, was released on September 1, just in time for Bouchercon, the largest gathering of mystery readers and writers in North America. As a bonus, the conference is being held in Minneapolis, my hometown.
If that wasn’t good fortune enough, I was put on a panel with the writer who put Botswana on the map, Alexander McCall Smith of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency fame, with famed Norwegian author, Jo Nesbø, author of the Harry Hole novels, and Caro Ramsey, the renowned Glaswegian author. It will be such a pleasure to sit in the shade of such big trees.
A Deadly Covenant is set in the northwest of Botswana on the banks of the Kavango River. When a skeleton is unearthed by a backhoe operator while digging a trench for a waterpipe, Detective Kubu and forensic pathologist, Ian MacGregor, are sent from Gaborone to take care of the formalities. MacGregor then unearths eight more skeletons of men, women, and children – all Bushmen, all murdered.
Their belief that this could be a massacre that took place a long time ago is called into question when a senior village counsellor and a prominent elderly woman are both murdered. They are forced to consider whether there is a connection between the past and current murders. And whether their own lives are in danger.
Read April’s story here.
