A Guide to the Beasts
of East Africa (2012) is a fictional novel set in Nairobi, Kenya, in
contemporary times – the second in the series following A Guide to the Birds of
East Africa (2008).
Mr Malik, now a
retired 66 year old, writes an anonymous column on Kenyan politics for the
Evening News. There is talk that the paper might be shut down. And the Asadi
Club may close too.
The Asadi Club mascot
is a stuffed lion, known as the Kima Killer, the lion that killed the
superintendant of the railway police in 1990. It is looking shabby now, and is
totally politically incorrect. Should it stay or should it go? Before a
decision is made, it disappears!
The Asadi Club members
are debating the age-old murder mystery of the death of Lord Errol in Nairobi
in January 1941. It needs to be settled ‘once and for all.’ So they decide to
hold a debate on the evening before their annual Asadi Club safari. It is Patel
versus Gopez, adjudicated by Tiger Singh. Has it been settled once and for all?
Mr Malik last met his
school boy rival, Harry Khan, four years ago when they were vying for the
attention of Rose Mbikwa. But Rose has been in Scotland for four years and
Harry returned to America. Now Harry and Rose are back in Nairobi, just before
the annual Asadi Club safari, an annual event since 1958. The love rivallry
continues!
And Mr Malik’s
daughter Petula has had a misunderstanding with her fiance Salman. So who is
the man with her at the Jockey Bar of the Hilton Hotel late on a Thursday
night? Does Petula have competition from her school girl friend Sunita for the
attention of this man? And who is ‘my friend Kennedy’?
There are so many
mysteries to be solved, and so many love rivalries to be settled in this wonderful
comical story. Nice characters and an easily untangled plot make this a fun
read.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different
in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament
(2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a
Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
Comments
Post a Comment