Description

Original title: Later Than You Think: A Tale of 1958

(from inside flap of St. Martin's dj) When her aunt, Lady Emily DeBrett, offers her a position at "Flamingo,", the family estate in Kenya's Rift Valley, Victoria Caryll accepts -- realizing that acceptance means having once again to see Eden DeBrett, the man she was formerly engaged to. What Victoria does not realize is that she will arrive in a remote and dangerous region still uneasily recovering from the bloody Mau Mau revolt, and into a household already thrown into grief and confusion by one murder -- and by the ominous threats of more to come.

"Death in Kenya" is the second in a series of mysteries by M. M. Kaye that are already making publishing history. Mignon Eberhart called the premiere mystery, "Death in Zanzibar", "...a thoroughly engrossing novel. It has the rich and dramatic story of romance and conflict which we have come to expect of M. M. Kaye, plus a diverting mystery which has a logical but very surprising climax...My congratulations to the publisher, the author and to her millions of devoted fans." Death in Kenya is just as graceful, just as chilling, just as enthralling; it is a consummate mystery, written by one of the finest storytellers of our time.

Notes

I tend to select away from vintage reads set in the British colonies (or the American South), but I'd wanted Death in Berlin and was offered a 6-pack of Kaye's Deaths for $15, so here we are. Didn't like enough this one nearly as much as Berlin, and not just for the appalling racism (though that would have been enough). Kaye is a very good writer and excellent at building suspense. Death in Kenya centers a small, insular cast of settlers (-cum-suspects) -- with their tangled passions, dark secrets, & drinking problems -- surrounded & vastly outnumbered by a people who justly resent them, and who they both deprecate and fear. A hothouse with strong Southern Gothic/"hell is other people" vibes, which I can dig. In the other column, it's hampered by (besides the appalling racism) major plot points that are strangely and unconvincingly motivated, and an unusually poorly-drawn female mc, who spends most of her time as a passive observer -- witnessing terrifying events and being terrified by them. The only agency Victoria really exerts for most of the book is in refusing to do what anyone with sense would have by chapter 3, which is to get herself the hell out of there.

It's interesting for some beautiful descriptions of the Rift and Lake Naivasha (M. M. Kaye's husband was stationed, and she wrote the book, there). Also, for the male mc's explicit articulation of the settlers' thinking and of the hypocrisy of other colonizers (especially in the US). I'd also known very little about Kenya's history and Death in inspired me to read more about the Mau Mau Uprising and Kenya's post-colonial experience.

Flags: Appalling racism.

Tags

1950s, Africa, Africa, Kenya, African, English, beautiful/handsome, brave, courageous, calm/tranquil, competent, disappointed in love, disciplined, efficient, f/m, farmer/horticulturalist, female, jilted/left at the altar, mystery, not recommended, rancher/cowboy, romance, secretary, single, tall, thin, third-person, unreadable to other MC, young

Flags

alcoholism/drug addiction or abuse, insensitive or outdated language (race/ethnicity/disability/sexual orientation), insensitive racial/ethnic portrayal/stereotyping