Deadly Harvest (Detective Kubu 4)

Author/Guide: Michael Stanley

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: In Botswana – all of the conditions are in perfect alignment for a deadly harvest

ISBN: 978-1910633441
Genre: Crime, Folklore, Thriller

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What you need to know before your trail

The Botswana Criminal Investigation Department has just come across its most shocking case yet.A young girl has gone missing after getting into a car with an unknown man. Then another girl goes missing and the father is desperate to seek revenge.

Samantha Khama is the department’s new recruit, tough and keen to make her mark. She believes that the girl was killed for muti; traditional African medicine so together with Assistant Superintendent David ‘Kubu’ Benga , an opera-loving wine connoisseur, they start to investigate.

Can this really be a case of catching a killer witch doctor, who is using humans in his potions?

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Travel Guide

What a visit to Botswana!

The setting is stunning and one of the most interesting for a murder mystery with a difference. Set in the same area as Alexander McCall Smith books – Kgale Hill – this is a much darker, sinister African setting.Witch doctors, AIDS and superstitions mixed with the dusty, hot, dramatic setting of the African desert landscape. Contrast that to the grim symbolism of cemeteries in the story and…the scene is set for some dark, disturbing scenes.

This is a country where women still play a traditional role in society, disease is rampant, politicians are shady characters in the background and the police have to take into consideration believe systems and lifestyle systems very different to most others.

Black Magic

This is one fascinating country- one caught between the old ways and the new, a county and a people who still still cling to the old ways of black magic and superstition. professional people who seek out a witch doctor in order to be more powerful and successful. This is a believe system deeply entrenched and very particular to a culture and heritage of a country,

The Witch doctor is both feared and revered in equal measure and is very intoxicating a subject to discover. This is a dark, confusing world, a very powerful and enticing one.

Streetview Maps

B) Motswedi Junior Secondary School,

E) Pela Crescent

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

I really really recommend this book. It;’s just so different to anything I’d read before and I mean that in a good way – it’s a police procedural and mysterious dark and creepy themes of witch doctors and superstition, which takes place against one of the hottest and sunniest climates in the world. An explosive mix and one which was both fascinatingly well plotted and written as well as just a little bit disturbing if I’ve honest!

I read this with my eyes wide open with surprise and shock most of the time. Being taken so far out of my comfort zone was a refreshing change here as it reminded me of a mix of the African innocence of Mc Call Smith together with scenes from the film The Skeleton Key (voodoo practices in the Deep South of America) It was as if I was wearing a pair of those sunglasses which go dark and light when reading. But I tell you something this was a very fascinating and interesting read.

I loved the whole relationship between Kubu and Samantha. How Kubu uses local beliefs and experiences to delve deeper into things and persuades Samantha to do the same really got me thinking about how differently we do things for the same result

The Witch doctor scared me – I’m not going to lie, as did the use of human bones. But overall as I finished the book I was left with the feeling that I had really been to Botswana, a very colourful and such a vibrant place- had felt the sun on my face and the fear of the shadows yet had come away knowing I would miss Kubu and would soon be back.