THE crime scene is Botswana, Africa, where illegal drugs and weapons trade flourishes in a parallel economy. When a mutilated body is found in a forest retreat, the cops are surprised to find that the man had died twenty years ago. How can a man die twice?
A Deadly Trade by Michael Stanley is a sequence novel with detective ‘Kubu’ as hero. The investigation by Kubu seems to lead him into multiple tracks. There are more bodies at the camp and disappearances. His own sister-in-law is abducted and then released. Obviously, someone is laying the trap for Kubu and warning him to lay off. However much he may want to wrap up the case, it takes him to neighbouring Zimbabwe. There are all kinds of links – war crimes, old enmities. But none of them are completing the picture, until Kubu stumbles upon a former military man Enoch, who believes that his ancestors were always putting him at the wrong place, he gets into trouble right from childhood because of where he is and should not be. Enoch tells his story that fixes the plot and completes investigation. Behind it all was a political plot, an assassination plan, to overthrow the president of Zimbabwe.
A crime thriller set in the dark forests of Botswana and the men carry equally dark secrets. The book gives an easy, non-taxing read. -VN
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