Looser and more engaging than Abigail’s debut (The October Killings, 2011, etc.), but just as committed in its anatomy of...
Furloughed from her job with South Africa’s Department of Justice, attorney Abigail Bukula is free to go to Zimbabwe for some pro bono work that pays only in adventure, danger and unwelcome romance.
Even though attorney Krisj Patel insists that Tony Makumbe, the headline dissident of the Harare Seven, is actually the cousin Abigail never knew she had, she turns down Patel’s request that she come to Zimbabwe to help him win the release of Tony and the other six. But when she pushes back against the decision to dissolve the Directorate of Special Operations, where she’s worked very effectively under advocate Gert Pienaar, Abigail’s offered a promotion to the newly formed Directorate of Priority Crimes on the condition that she take a six-month sabbatical leave starting instantly. Since she’s just been tipped off that her wealthy husband, Robert Mokoapi, is cheating on her with his nubile temp, it suddenly seems like a perfect time to leave him behind and go to Zimbabwe, where she’s soon joined by her old friend, Yudel Gordon, who’s also enjoying some time off from his job at C-Max prison. The road to freeing the Seven, Patel informs her, runs through the good offices of Director Jonas Chunga, of the Central Intelligence Organization. Abigail’s not optimistic about dealing with such a powerful man, but Chunga isn’t what she expected. Obviously swept off his feet by her, he presses her for all sorts of intimacies that leave her wondering where her loyalties lie. When Patel is assassinated, however, Chunga, whose motives are anything but straightforward, becomes her only hope.
Looser and more engaging than Abigail’s debut (The October Killings, 2011, etc.), but just as committed in its anatomy of the unending legacy of apartheid.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-65596-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
This ran in the S.E.P. and resulted in more demands for the story in book form than ever recorded. Well, here it is and it is a honey. Imagine ten people, not knowing each other, not knowing why they were invited on a certain island house-party, not knowing their hosts. Then imagine them dead, one by one, until none remained alive, nor any clue to the murderer. Grand suspense, a unique trick, expertly handled.
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1939
ISBN: 0062073478
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939
SEEN & HEARD
A murder is committed in a stalled transcontinental train in the Balkans, and every passenger has a watertight alibi. But Hercule Poirot finds a way.
**Note: This classic Agatha Christie mystery was originally published in England as Murder on the Orient Express, but in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach. Kirkus reviewed the book in 1934 under the original US title, but we changed the title in our database to the now recognizable title Murder on the Orient Express. This is the only name now known for the book. The reason the US publisher, Dodd Mead, did not use the UK title in 1934 was to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel, Orient Express.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1934
ISBN: 978-0062073495
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1934
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