The Witch Doctor's Wife With Bonus Material (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
I loved this even more than the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Set in the 50s during great political unrest, the Congo is still under Belgian control where oppressive overlords are busy stripping the land of its most valuable resource: diamonds. The author draws on her own experiences growing up with her missionary parents among a tribe then still known to practice headhunting. Interesting characters, lots of humor as Amanda and her newly hired housekeeper, Cripple, get to know each other and try to understand their different cultures. Lots of interesting characters, sometimes a little difficult to keep straight, but I will definitely keep reading this series.Book description: The Congo beckons to young Amanda Brown in 1958, as she follows her missionary calling to the mysterious "dark continent" far from her South Carolina home. But her enthusiasm cannot cushion her from the shock of a very foreign culture—where competing missionaries are as plentiful as flies, and oppressive European overlords are busy stripping the land of its most valuable resource: diamonds. Little by little, Amanda is drawn into the lives of the villagers in tiny Belle Vue—and she is touched by the plight of the local witch doctor, a man known as Their Death, who has been forced to take a second job as a yardman to support his two wives. But when First Wife stumbles upon an impossibly enormous uncut gem, events are set in motion that threaten to devastate the lives of these people Amanda has come to admire and love—events that could lead to nothing less than murder.Series info:Amanda Brown series#1 The Witch Doctor's Wife---------------------------#2 The Headhunter's Daughter#3 The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots#4 The Girl Who Married an Eagle Like its follow-up "The Headhunter's Daughter", this is a highly enjoyable but flawed novel. The material is first-rate, as the author clearly has a vivid recollection of growing up in the Belgian Congo in the 1950s and is able to communicate much that's fascinating about this country on the eve of its independence. It is all the sadder that she is not a first-rate story-teller. The promising plot about a diamond that passes from hand to hand from a baby to various greedy people desperate to smuggle it out of the Congo and make a new life elsewhere with the profits peters out, and the fate of several important characters is left unresolved (the Nigerian, Heilewid). I won't even go into the problems of coherence between the 2 novels: in this one, Heilewid, who is not only childless but sterile, becomes a lush because her twin sister died in a bush fire. In "The Headhunter's Daughter", she is supposed to have fallen to pieces because her infant daughter was kidnapped. Maybe such things don't bother mystery aficionados, but they really get on my nerves and spoil my enjoyment of what might otherwise have been a truly special series.
What do You think about The Witch Doctor's Wife With Bonus Material (2012)?
I loved this book! A fictional story of life in colonial Africa.
—dakota
loved this book looking forward to reading more from this author.
—Ddepu
This was truly a find! Must read more of Ms Myers' books.
—Bella
Great story. We had great discussions in book group.
—ctrevino02
Did not enjoy. Confusing and unlikable characters.
—liewalysia
