DVD Review: Botswana - In the Footsteps of the Noo. 1 Ladies' Detective with Alexander McCall Smith

Botswana: In the Footsteps of the No 1 Ladies Detective with Alexander McCall Smith

by Mats Ogren (DVD 916.833 Bot)

 

This DVD invites you to take a tour of Botswana with Alexander McCall Smith. I have enjoyed reading these books with their traditionally built and incredibly kind and wise heroine as she helps her clients solve their moral dilemmas in a gently humorous fashion. Watching this DVD gives one the opportunity to meet some of the real people behind the characters of the book, including Mma Romatswe herself as well as the director of the orphanage and the head of the wildlife preserve. You’ll learn some history of Botswana and see scenes from the Diamond industry, and a discussion of the Tourism Industry and conversations with Botswana Bushman. You will also learn about some traditional Botswana Values and see the country and learn about life the Bush. This video was produced about the same time that production began on the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency TV series based Mma Ramotswe and her loyal helper Grace Makutsi, back when McCall Smith was writing book 9 The Miracle at Speedy Motors (2008). Even though the production is a little dated, it’s still an interesting show to watch for anyone who is interested in Botswana, the No. 1 Detective Ladies Series, or an inside glimpse into the author’s process. Get your cup of tea ready, and sit down for a pleasant hour!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The No. 1 ladies’ detective agency [the complete first season], or the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency novels by Alexander McCall Smith.]

[ official Alexander McCall Smith web site ]

 

Recommended by Carrie K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Missing American by Kwei Quartey

The Missing American
by Kwei Quartey (Quartey)

When the libraries’ Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group decided on a broad theme of “African-American Mystery Authors” for our January 2021 meeting on Zoom, it was a perfect opportunity for me to sample a work by Kwei Quartey, an author I’d read good things about but never tried before.

The Missing American is the first in a new series for Quartey, who is perhaps best known for the five volumes in his Inspector Darko Dawson series (as well as a couple of “stand-alone” novels). Like the Darko Dawson series, this new series, featuring sleuth Emma Djan, is set in Ghana. Emma is removed from the police force after an encounter with a corrupt supervisor, and takes advantage of the opportunity to take a position with a respectable private investigation service in Accra. One of her first cases is to investigate the disappearance of a visiting American, Gordon Tilson, who had come to Ghana to meet a woman he’d had an online relationship with — only to discover after loaning her a great deal of money that he’s been the victim of an online confidence scam.

The story alternates between Gordon’s actions prior to his disappearance, and Emma’s investigation (even after she’s told to drop the case) — it also bounces back and forth in timelines as well. There is a very strong sense of place — Ghana is truly brought to life. And the rich cast of characters, both admirable and deplorable, is impressive — we really learn a lot about the intricate world of online con artists, and the lengths they’ll go to to fleece their victims. I really enjoyed this, and will most likely continue with future volumes in the Emma Djan series, a second of which is due in early 2021.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the rest of Kwei Quartey‘s mysteries.]

[ official The Missing American page on the official Kwei Quartey web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

 

Mystery fans -- join us for the monthly Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group meetings on Zoom tonight at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. The focus of our discussion tonight is the thrillers of Melinda Leigh, but even if you haven't read any of Leigh's works, you're still welcome to contribute to our "Round Robin" at the end of the meeting, sharing what other mystery/suspense/thriller fiction you've been reading recently! Login information for this Zoom meeting can be found at the Just Desserts part of our Book Groups schedule page!

DVD Review: Heat of the Sun

Heat of the Sun
written by Russell Lewis (DVD Lewis)

Another excellent program from WGBH Boston for the “Mystery!” series arm of PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre.”

Albert Tyburn was a Scotland Yard detective in 1930’s London. In a two-minute flashback we learn he shot and killed an “untouchable” member of British society — either someone with a lot of money or part of the aristocracy — who was a pedophile suspect. Even as Tyburn caught the man with the young boy, Tyburn was still given the choice of prison, or transfer to Kenya in Africa. So he headed to Nairobi.

There we meet the entitled, British ex-patriates. Again, some with titles, others are wealthy businessmen or both. This is during the times of British colonialism so the natives are not treated well, and it’s between the two world wars. Tyburn is constantly being reprimanded for not wearing his uniform, for using a German doctor for the autopsies – not to mention the doctor is Jewish — and for treating the natives as human beings. But his skill at solving murders cannot be denied.

Sadly, only three two-hour episodes were made but on the other hand you can binge watch these in an afternoon. Great characters, good mysteries, and as any good series does, you continue to see the same characters throughout – except those that were murdered of course.

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ Wikipedia page for the Heat of the Sun mini-series ]

See Scott C.’s earlier review of Heat of the Sun in the January 2010 Staff Recommendations

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

The Elephants' Graveyard

The Elephants' Graveyard
by Karin McQuillan

Karin McQuilan wove memories of her Peace Corp days into this mystery. Like Karin, Jazz Jasper, served in the Peace Corp in Africa. After her assignment was finished. Jazz and her husband settled down to married life in the United Stated. A messy divorce caused Jazz to flee back to Africa. She settled in Kenya and started Jazz Jasper Safaris showing tourists the wonders of Kenya's wildlife. Business was good until aggressive poachers started killing the elephants for their ivory and drove the tourists away. Now Jazz's company is struggling. And to make matters even grimmer, Jazz finds her friend and fellow wildlife activist, Emmett Laird shot to death in his camp. Greed and jealousy are the top motives for murdering the wealthy Laird. Greed is a straightforward motive for the ivory poachers. Greed and jealousy combine to make more complicated motives for Laird's disdainful wife, Alisha, and her lover. And for his children who coveted his fortune. Mikki Darrow, Jazz's friend and the woman that Emmett wanted to marry, hires Jazz to find out who killed him. Jazz follows the clues through the grimy back alleys in the slums of bustling Nairobi and across the tree dotted savannah. [If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the works of Suzanne Arruda.]

[ Karin McQuillan's books on LibraryThing ]

See more books like this in our Africa--The Dark Continent booktalk booklist

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

New Booktalk Booklist - Africa: The Dark Continent

Donna G., librarian in the Virtual Services Department and a regular contributor to the libraries' BookGuide web pages, presented an all-new booktalk at both Gere Branch (May 2nd) and Bethany Branch (May 13th), tapping into her vast selection of favorite mysteries.

Her theme this time was Africa - The Dark Continent -- click this link to see her Booktalk Booklist, the contents of which are hotlinked into the libraries' online catalog! Check it out for some great book and book-on-cd suggestion

Wife of the Gods

Wife of the Gods
by Kwei Quartey

Kwei Quartay, a physician in Los Angeles, set his first novel in his native Ghana. Quartay contrasts the traditional healing practices involving lotions and potions with modern science. The book opens with the murder of a young AIDS prevention worker, Gladys Mensah, near the remote village of Ketanu. Gladys was medical student who traveled from village to village working on the AIDS project. She also actively campaigned against the practice of troski, which is giving a girl to the local witch doctor. She then spends her life as his slave. Inspector Darko Dawson is chosen for this assignment because he grew up in the area and speaks Ewe. Dawson is reluctant to accept the assignment. He doesn't want to leave his wife and their sick son. Ketanu also holds bad memories for him. It's the last place that his mother, Beatrice, was seen alive. Twenty-five years ago Beatrice traveled to Ketanu to visit her sister. She boarded the bus to go home and that was the last time anyone saw her. Gladys' body was found in a shady grove outside of Ketanu. By the time that Dawson arrives in the village the local police have set their sights on Samuel Boateng, an admirer of Gladys' and the town troublemaker, as the murderer. Darko isn't so sure that Boateng killed her. Gladys made enemies because of her activism. One of these enemies may have committed the crime. Darko must break through the web of secrets in this isolated area to find the real killer. Quartay fills the pages with lively, but flawed characters in this engaging novel. [If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the works of Malla Nunn, Michael Stanley and Deon Meyer.] -- recommended by Donna G. - Virtual Services Department
[ official Kwei Quartay web site ]

See more titles like this in Donna's "Africa - The Dark Continent" booktalk booklist

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

Death in Zanzibar

Death in Zanzibar
by M.M. Kaye

M. M. Kaye was so enamored with Zanzibar that she set two books on that island paradise. The first book, Trade Wind, is a historical novel that tells the story of Rory Frost, a slave trader and pirate. The second book, Death in Zanzibar, features Tyson Frost, the grandson of Rory. Rory Frost hid a cache of gold and left clues to its location in a document that he sent to his solicitors in Market-Lyndon, England with instructions that it not be released until 70 years after his death. Tyson asks his stepdaughter, Dany Ashton, to bring him the document when she flies to Zanzibar from London to visit he and her mother, Lorraine. Dany gets the document from Mr. Honeywood. Shortly, after she leaves office, the elderly solicitor is murdered. Then Dany's hotel room is ransacked and her passport is stolen and a gun is planted in her dresser drawer. Dany turns to a man who she has just met who is also going to visit her mother and stepfather. Dany adamantly tells Lash Holden that she will fly to Zanzibar, the island of her dreams, passport or no passport. At Lash's suggestion, Dany assumes the role of Lash's secretary, Aida Kitchell and travels with him to Zanzibar. There more trouble awaits Dany when someone attempts to frame her for another murder. M. M. Kaye was married to a British Army officer, who, in her words, "was posted to many novel and entertaining places". She kept a journal about each exotic locale. Kaye said that when she was ready to write this romantic suspense novel all she had to do was "hunt up my Zanzibar notebook, and there it all was. An exact description of everything I could possibly need, down to the advertisement painted on looking-glass in the Mombassa Airport, and the millipede crawling across the floor of the tiny, makeshift one on Pemba." Even though this book was written fifty ago, it stands the test of time fairly well. [If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try books by Mary Stewart, Georgette Heyer and Victoria Holt.] -- recommended by Donna G. - Virtual Services Department

[ M.M. Kaye on Wikipedia ]

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

The Crocodile's Last Embrace

The Crocodile's Last Embrace
by Suzanne Arruda

This is the latest entry in this fine series set in Kenya in the 1920s. Photojournalist Jade del Cameron makes her living by writing articles about Africa for the magazine, The Traveler. At heart, she is an adventurer. Before she moved to Kenya Jade drove ambulances in France during World War I. She ferried the wounded from the front line to treatment centers. After the war Jade settled in Kenya along with her close friends, Lord and Lady Dunbury. When this book opens Jade is troubled by strange visions and worried by notes that she is receiving. The notes appear to be from her dead fiancé, asking her why she let him die. Jade sets these worries aside when, one night, she witnesses a car being pushed off the side of a bridge by another car. More murders follow. Jade is drawn into investigating these murders that, on the surface, appear to involve a fraudulent gold mine. Arruda draws her characters with a deft hand. Jade is drawn so well that you expect to find the articles that she has written in the magazine's archive. The other characters also pop off the page. The indigenous people are well crafted. You get a sense of the tension between the original inhabitants and the British colonial rule. This series has everything -- adventure, mystery and romance. [If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the works of Barbara Cleverly, Charles Todd, and Malla Nunn.] -- recommended by Donna G. - Virtual Services Department

[ official Jade del Cameron series page on the official Suzanne Arruda web site ]

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

Secrets of the Savanna

Secrets of the Savanna: Twenty-three Years in the Africa Wilderness Unraveling the Mysteries of Elephants and People
by Mark and Delia Owens [599.674 Owe]

This book describes the culmination of their twenty-three year odyssey in Africa. Mark and Delia's fascination with the Dark Continent started when they were graduate students at the University of Georgia. One evening they attended a lecture about Africa's vanishing wildlife. The lecture inspired them to sell all of their possessions for $6000 and move to Africa to help save the wildlife. They camped in the Kalahari Desert for seven years while they studied the habits of black-maned lions and brown hyenas. After seven in Botswana they moved to the North Luangwa National Park in Zambia where they worked to stop elephant poaching.. In the course of their work the Owens found themselves in a unique position. They were able to document the impact that longtime poaching had on elephant herds. They saw how the social structure was affected and what became of elephants that were left to make their way into adulthood without the benefit of the herd. It's a fascinating look at elephant society and the impact of poaching on human society. An equal portion of the book looks at the Owens' work to persuade former poachers to develop other economic opportunities in their villages and wean themselves off of poaching as a source of income. They established their own foundation to fund economic opportunities for the villages. They loaned the villagers money to start cottage industries. Some of the women became seamstresses when the Owens loaned them money to sewing machines. The Owens provided training for women who wanted to become midwives. Some of the men became millers, others became beekeepers. The Owens hired other men and women to help them with research and to run their project. [If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try My Heart is Africa by Scott Griffin, or A Wild Life by Dick Pitman.] -- recommended by Donna G. - Virtual Services Department


[ official Secrets of the Savanna page on the official Owens Foundation for Wildlife Conservation web site ]

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

Oprah's latest pick for 2009 - Say You're One of Them

Oprah Winfrey announced the selection of her latest Book Club title (for the Fall of 2009) a few days ago -- the 2008 story collection Say You're One of Them, by Uwem Akpan.

Here's the jacket blurb:

"Uwem Akpan's first published short story, "An Ex-mas Feast," appeared in The New Yorker's Debut Fiction issue in 2005. The story's portrait of a family living together in a makeshift shanty in urban Kenya, and their attempts to find gifts of any kind for the impending Christmas holiday, gives a matter-of-fact reality to the most extreme circumstances--and signaled the arrival of a breathtakingly talented writer.

"My Parents' Bedroom" is a Rwandan girl's account of her family's struggles to maintain a facade of normalcy amid unspeakable acts. In "Fat­tening for Gabon," a brother and sister cope with their uncle's attempt to sell them into slavery. "Luxurious Hearses" creates a microcosm of Africa within a busload of refugees and introduces us to a Muslim boy who summons his faith to bear a treacherous ride through Nigeria. "What Language Is That?" reveals the emotional toll of the Christian-Muslim conflict in Ethiopia through the eyes of childhood friends. Every story is a testament to the wisdom and resilience of children, even in the face of the most agonizing situations our planet can offer."


So what do people think of this book?

Staff Recommendation - Dangerous Beauty

Dangerous Beauty: Life and Death in Africa - True Stories From a Safari Guide

by Mark C. Ross [599.096 RosYr

Reading Dangerous Beauty is like sitting around a campfire in the savannah listening to Mark Ross talk about his experiences leading safaris. His words paint crisp images of close encounters with lions and elephants on his safaris. He describes trailing lions in his Land Cruiser. As soon as they get near the animals, Mark and his clients get out the vehicle and edge within camera range of these magnificent beasts. He recalls the excitement of watching the mass migration of thousands of zebras and wildebeests in the Serengeti. He talks about the heart-stopping moment when he lured a stampeding elephant away from his clients. He remembers the night that he was sleeping by a campfire and was jostled awake because he was being drug along the ground in his sleeping bag. A Hyena had grabbed a corner and was pulling him away from the camp. Mark yelled, scaring the Hyena off. His friend Leon, who was sleeping next to him, was no help. He was too busy laughing. Mark, unhurt, carried his sleeping bag back to camp. He reminisces about growing up on an Illinois farm where he became fascinated with nature. His love affair with Africa started on Sunday nights watching Wild Kingdom on TV. As a wildlife biology major in college Mark got an opportunity to study in Kenya. He finished his degree but East Africa with its vast expanses and open skies pulled at him and he moved to Kenya and became a safari guide. Mark recalls taking clients to Uganda to see the mountain gorillas. He described slow climb up the slippery, 7,000-foot trail in the Impenetrable Forest and their pleasure at seeing the shy creatures. Their terror when they returned to camp were captured and held hostage by Rwandan rebels. -- recommended by Donna G. - Eiseley and Walt Branch Libraries

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Ten new reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog over the course of the entire month.