Devil-Devil
-
-
4.3 • 7 Ratings
-
-
- $1.99
-
- $1.99
Publisher Description
First in the series: A “truly fabulous” mystery starring a policeman and a nun in the South Pacific of the 1960s (The Globe and Mail, Toronto).
It’s not easy being Ben Kella. As a sergeant in the Solomon Islands police force, as well as an aofia, a hereditary spiritual peacekeeper of the Lau people, he is viewed with distrust by both the indigenous islanders and the British colonial authorities.
In the past few days he has been cursed by a magic man, stumbled across evidence of a cargo cult uprising, and failed to find an American anthropologist who had been scouring the mountains for a priceless pornographic icon. Then, at a mission station, Kella discovers an independent and rebellious young American nun, Sister Conchita, secretly trying to bury a skeleton.
The unlikely pair of Kella and Conchita are forced to team up to solve a series of murders that tie into all these other strange goings-on, in this crime novel with “a fascinating setting” (The A.V. Club).
“A sparkling plot (complete with an unexpected conclusion) and a rich history of the Solomons and their native people. But it’s Kella and Conchita—and Kent’s wit—that makes this unusual mystery work, and readers will eagerly await the next installment.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in the Solomon Islands in 1960 when the country was a British protectorate, Kent's intriguing if uneven debut introduces Sgt. Ben Kella, whose position as aofia, or tribal spiritual peacekeeper, tends to bring him into conflict with his superiors in the British-run police force. Fresh from a case that earned him an official reprimand, Kella stirs up a new hornet's nest with his discovery of a skull with a bullet hole in it which young American nun Sister Conchita is surreptitiously trying to bury. No sooner has he identified the victim as a long-missing Australian beachcomber than someone starts taking pot shots at Kella and the equally headstrong nun. As rumblings of a tribal uprising increase along with the body count, some readers might wish that Kent who served eight years in the Solomons as head of BBC Schools broadcasting had put more effort into maximizing suspense than exploring the islands' exotic indigenous culture.
