Happy New Year! Realised I had not published my review to one of my top reads of 2016, so starting 2017 with a review of a phenomenal read:

Genre: Crime

Stars: 5

Links: Amazon UK and Amazon US

 

The Blurb:

A young girl goes missing after getting into a car with a mysterious man. Soon after, a second girl disappears, and her devastated father, Witness, sets out to seek revenge. As the trail goes cold, Samantha Khama – new recruit to the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department – suspects the girl was killed for muti, the traditional African medicine usually derived from plants, sometimes animals, and, recently and most chillingly, human parts. When the investigation gets personal, Samantha enlists opera-loving wine connoisseur Assistant Superintendent David ‘Kubu’ Bengu to help her dig into the past. As they begin to discover a pattern to the disappearances, there is another victim, and Kubu and Samantha are thrust into a harrowing race to stop a serial killer who has only one thing in mind …

 

My Review:

Dark yet colourful, this is crime fiction with a brilliant flavouring of Botswanan culture and life, sprinkled with a healthy dose of grit.

Superintendent Kubu’s help is enlisted by Samantha Khama, a new police recruit intent on solving crimes against women and children, in a case of missing girls. Throw in a revenge-seeking father, political intrigue and an ‘invisible witch doctor’, and the pieces are in place for a thrilling crime novel…

The characterisation was strong, the pace tense and suspenseful (in a good way), and the writing perfectly poised. But, above all, what made this read so unique was the beautifully depicted setting delicately woven into a great crime novel that looks at the impact of crime on those left behind as well as those investigating. Highly recommended.

*Thank you to the publisher for my free copy.