A Death in the Family by Michael Stanley begins
with the title; Detective Kubu’s father is murdered. The book takes us through
all the sadness and work that everyone goes through when death occurs. The
funeral, the grieving, the horrible sense that nothing is right. All of this is
made worse by the fact that Wilmon Bengu was murder. Why?
And then the house is robbed, and Mr. Bengu’s will is
missing. What now?
Next, a riot ensues when a chief and elders of a
community decide against allowing mining on tribal lands; the younger men of
the tribe need and want the jobs. The chief and at least 2 elders are killed.
What now?
Detective Kubu, who is now an Assistant Superintendent,
is heartbroken when his father is murdered. Of course he is told to stay away
from the case, but he still hovers at the edges, making several mistakes that earns
him the ire of his boss. He is even sent to New York, to give a speech at a
conference for his boss, and he still does a little detecting there.
The reader gets more than one point of view in this
story; among others, we get the viewpoint of Kubu’s superior, an
excellent detective in his own right as well as several others within the police force. I enjoyed the Director of the Criminal
Investigation Department, Jacob Mabaku’s view, and how hard he also worked on
the cases.
Upon Kubu’s return, things really heat up, both towards
solving who instigated the riot, and who murdered a second man. Unfortunately,
Kubu makes a grievous error when interrogating a suspect, and is forced to take
a leave of absence. Despite this mistake, the case(s) draw to a close, but not
without one final twist at the end.
Happy Reading,
Patti
A Death in
the Family by Michael
Stanley, Minotaur Books, October 27, 2015; ISBN 9781250070890
This book was sent to me for review by the publisher; no
other compensation was offered or accepted for this review.
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