Dany Ashton is an innocent abroad. Brought up by a very strict, ultra-protective aunt, she has seen very little of the world and this story is about her first excursion alone. And it just might wind up being her last. Dany's mother hasn't been much of one. She has made her way through several husbands and is currently married to the famous author, Tyson Frost. They decide to invite Dany to Zanzibar where Frost (through his father, the rakish Emory Frost) has rights to Kivulimi: "The House of Shade", a house bestowed up Emory as a gift from a local potentate. Dany is thrilled at the chance to finally see the world and has great plans to have a good time. Before she leaves she has been commissioned to stop by Frost's lawyer's house and pick up an important envelope. She changes the appointment time from afternoon to morning and that's when her planned vacation begins to fall apart. The lawyer is killed not long after Dany's visit and the police are interested in finding the "mysterious young woman" who was seen leaving the scene. She obstinately refuses to identify herself with the authorities because she doesn't want her chance at an exotic trip to be cancelled.Her hotel room is ransacked, her passport is stolen, and she manages to lock herself out of her hotel room in the middle of the night. Enter Lash Holden--handsome and impetuous son of a friend of her stepfather's--who is also in the hotel waiting to leave for Zanzibar. Lash is spending his last hours getting thoroughly drunk in response to being jilted by his fiancee and comes across Dany in the hotel hallway on his return from his binge. He comes up with a plan for Dany to impersonate his secretary (who conveniently has the mumps and who Dany happens to vaguely resemble--enough to get by on her passport).With a quick dye-job turning Dany into a rather dowdy looking redhead, they manage to smuggle Dany past the airport officials and are on their way. But danger follows them. A fellow passenger is poisoned on the journey and then one of her step-father's house guests falls to her death from a stone staircase. Clues are constantly being planted to frame Dany even after the envelope's contents disappear, but they manage to foil the murderer's plans. Will they manage to unmask the villain before s/he decides to eliminate Dany altogether?This is a fun, light, romantic mystery. Dany is a shade too babe-in-the-woods. Honestly, I don't drink and hadn't been out amongst people who did much--but I recognize my first drunk when I saw him. It does seem a bit unlikely that she had no idea that Lash was plastered when she first met him. But--I suppose it's necessary to suspend one's disbelief in order for the story to proceed as planned. The cast of characters, witty dialogue, and spectacular descriptions and local color (based on Kaye's notebooks from her trip to Zanzibar) all make the read well worthwhile. Three and a half stars.This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks!
I'm addicted to Agatha Christie's novels. I've always been a mystery fan, since I picked up my first Nancy Drew at age six or seven (I was terrified. It may have been the first book I ever read that featured a legitimate villain.), and I'm always looking for new whodunnits. But I can't pick up just any book in the mystery section of the library. I'll never say no to fantastic plot twists, red herrings, character development, ingenious methods of murder and shockingly unique solutions. But to me, one of the most important elements of a good whodunnit is the atmosphere. Yes, many of Agatha Christie's stories are unique and shocking and clever. But some of them aren't. If you've read twenty or so, it could be argued that you've read them all. But I keep reading her books in particular because I just can't get enough of the atmosphere. It has pulled me in since day 1. It's old-fashioned and English and tea can be found around every corner. Modern murder stories just don't seem to cut it for me. And no one else has ever really come close to the Queen of Crime. But the inside flap of Death in Zanzibar compared the style to Agatha Christie's, and it sounded promising. The atmosphere was completely satisfying, and everything I was looking for. It had almost everything: poison, hidden treasure, old mansions, foreign travel, disguises, forged notes enticing victims to their doom, evening gowns, engagements and gossip on the veranda. As an experienced reader of murder stories, I have learned to keep characters at arm's length. #1 rule of murder mysteries: everyone is a suspect. Well-read Christie fans will know that sometimes, the murderer may even be the protagonist or narrator. And if your favorite character doesn't end up being the killer, they're in constant danger of becoming the next victim. Nevertheless, I couldn't help getting attached to Dany Ashton and her handsome American accomplice, Lash Holden. Not as memorable as Hercule Poirot, or Tommy and Tuppence, or Sherlock Holmes or Lord Peter Wimsey, but very likable.As usual, I thought I had the murderer pinned down. I was surprised at the end. But not shocked.Of course the style differed from Christie's in many respects. None of the suspects were truly strong characters with motives and alibis. But as Dany and Lash are not real detectives, only two young people in a big mess, I can't blame them for not discussing these particulars in as much detail as I would have liked. Altogether, I really enjoyed this. A little romance, some danger and excitement, a red herring, and THREE murders. Agatha Christie fans should definitely check it out.
What do You think about Death In Zanzibar (1999)?
Our protagonist, Dany Ashton, is thrilled beyond words when she is invited to stay at her stepfather's house in Zanzibar. Brought up by her stolid aunt in a small English village (as her beautiful mother was always too flaky to raise her), it will be Dany's first time out on her own, and she is determined to have a good time. However, her plans go off the rails before she is even able to board her flight. Her hotel room is ransacked, her passport is stolen, and it appears that someone is trying to frame her for the murder of her stepfather's solicitor, who she paid a visit to in order to pick up an important document at her stepfather's request. When she discovers that a friend of her stepfather's -- who also happens to be bound for Zanzibar -- is staying in the hotel room next to hers, she relies on him to get her out of the scrape. The man is the young, impetuous and good-looking Lash Holden, who also has a penchant for heavy drinking and coming up with crazy schemes. It is his idea that she disguise herself as his secretary (who is laid low with mumps) and fly out to Zanzibar with the ill woman's passport. The plan seems to go off without a hitch, but the police are still on Dany's trail for a crime she didn't commit, and it appears an unknown party is after the mysterious document she received from the solicitor before he was murdered. When more murders start occurring even before their plane touches down at its final destination, it's clear that someone will stop at nothing to get what Dany has, though who or why they want it is a mystery. One thing is clear, however -- Dany and her friends and family are in deadly danger until they discover the solution.I think this is my favorite in this series so far (with Death in Kashmir coming up a close second, though I haven't read them all yet). It held my attention thoroughly all the way through, and the ending was not what I expected (I had my own suspicions as to the culprit, and I was wrong on all counts). As always, the characters and dialogue were excellent. My only complaint is that in this book, there was less of a focus on the exotic location than in the other books in the series, and this kind of disappointed me. I would have liked to have read more about Zanzibar, and M. M. Kaye has a great talent for describing such locales in riveting detail. Still, though, the book was great and I have no other complaints. On to Death in Cyprus!
—Liz
The locale: the island of Zanzibar, and a return to Kivulimi: "The House of Shade", made memorable as the home of that 19th century slaver, Rory Frost, in Kaye's epic historical masterpiece: Trade Wind. Now 70 years after Rory's death, his writer grandson Tyson Frost now holds the lease to Kivulimi, and is preparing to soon publish "Roaring Rory's" infamous diaries. Dany Ashton's mother is married to Tyson, and Dany has been asked to pick up a parcel from Tyson's solicitor in England before she makes a visit to Zanzibar. Little does anyone realize that this simple request will plunge Dany into a whirlwind of murder, hidden identity, political intrigue and romance.While it was great to get some additional snippets of information about my all time favorite fictional hero, Rory Frost, I have to admit that I found this whodunit the weakest of M.M. Kaye's 6 book "Death in..." murder mystery series. It was a bit too madcap and silly in places, and I disliked Dany's love interest intensely. That being said, Kaye still knows how to write an engrossing mystery better then most, and her weakest offering is still 100% better then most of the current stuff I read. Like Mary Stewart and Daphne du Maurier, Kaye's writing style features a real and palpable sense of "place", and the time periods in which she wrote these (1940's and 1950's) give the books an authenic period feeling. Kaye's remarkable and exotic life bring all her locations to vivid reality, as she actually lived or visited all the places in her books for long periods of time and took copius notes that she used years later in this novels.It is wonderful to revisit Kaye's novels once again. The strength and charm of her novels can't be over-emphasized.
—Hannah
After reading M.M. Kaye's epic The Far Pavilions and her almost-epic Trade Wind, it was a little startling to see a very different side of the author come out in this whodunnit murder/hidden treasure mystery. I felt like I was reading a Mary Stewart romantic suspense novel (nearly always a good thing) with a liberal infusion of Agatha Christie. I checked out this really massive book from the library that contains three of Kaye's mysteries, and read this one first because it follows the story of the gold ingots (now worth $3 million) hidden away by Rory Frost in about 1860 in Trade Wind. It's now the late 1950s, and a young Englishwoman, Dani Ashton, is traveling to Zanzibar to visit her mother and stepfather, Emory Frost, who is Rory's grandson and is living in Rory's old plantation home. Emory asks Dani to pick up a document from his London lawyer and bring it to him. This document has something to do with (view spoiler)[Rory's hidden treasure (hide spoiler)]
—Tadiana ✩ Night Owl☽
