A Deadly Covenant by Michael Stanley

A Deadly Covenant by Michael Stanley

This is the eighth book in the Detective Kubu series and the second with him as a young man.

While building a pipeline near the Okavango Delta, a contractor unearths the skeleton of a long-dead Bushman. Kubu and Scottish pathologist, Ian MacGregor, are sent to investigate, and MacGregor discovers eight more skeletons.

Then an elder of the nearby village is murdered at his home. The local police believe it was a robbery, but Kubu thinks otherwise. So does a strange woman who claims it was an angry river spirit. The situation gets more confusing when the strange woman is found dead, apparently killed by a crocodile.

Assistant Superintendent Mabaku joins them as accusations of corruption are levelled and international outrage builds over the massacre of the Bushman families. But how do the recent murders link to the dead Bushmen, if at all? As Kubu and his colleagues investigate, they uncover a deadly covenant and begin to fear that their own lives may be in danger.

The young Kubu's second big case mixes local mythology and tradition with smart police work to make for a satisfyingly immersive mystery that begs resolution until the last, unpredictable moment.

Michael Stanley is Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip's writing collaboration. Sears lectures at the University of the Witwatersrand and was born in Johannesburg. He grew up in Cape Town and Nairobi. Trollip was born in Johannesburg and has taught at Illinois, Minnesota, and North Dakota institutions, as well as Capella University. He splits his time between South Africa's Knysna and Minnesota's Minneapolis.