Mary Margaret Kaye (1908-2004) was born in India and lived there until she was sent to boarding school in England. She was originally an illustrator of children’s books until she decided to try a thriller. Her most famous book is The Far Pavilions, a historical novel set during the British Raj and based at least partly on her childhood in India. She used her experience as a peripatetic Army wife to establish colorful and authentic settings for her Death in…. books. Death in Zanzibar was originally published in 1959 as The House of Shade, then revised and reissued in 1983. It has been reprinted repeatedly. I counted at least 30 different editions in multiple languages.
Zanzibar is an island off the coast of East Africa, part of a string of islands in the path of major Indian Ocean trade routes. It was part of a British protectorate at the time Kaye’s book was first written. In 1964 Zanzibar and Tanganyika formed the independent nation now known as Tanzania. Kaye points out in the foreword to the revised book that the Zanzibar portrayed there lives only in her memory.
Dany Ashton has been raised in seclusion by her great-aunt in Hampshire. When her much-married mother and her current husband invite her to visit them in Zanzibar, she leaps at the opportunity to expand her limited horizons. First she spends a few days seeing the sights in London and buying clothes her aunt would dislike. Her mother asks her to visit the family lawyer to retrieve a document for her stepfather so she runs down to Kent and meets the semi-retired solicitor. She’s appalled to see in the London papers the next day that the gentleman was killed after her visit. The police are interested in speaking to everyone who saw him that day. Dany knows that includes her but she doesn’t want to miss her flight to Zanzibar and she leaves England anyway, hoping her mother and stepfather can sort things out for her.
Zanzibar is everything Dany hoped for but someone is unaccountably interested in that letter she is carrying. Her room is searched more than once. Another death escalates the tension among the assembled house party, the members of which are only superficially compatible.
This book is strongly similar to the Miss Silver stories with a girl in danger as the main character and a romance unfolding along with the mystery. It is also reminiscent of the Christies set abroad, with the attention to detail and local color only firsthand experience can supply. This story is strikingly atmospheric. The revelation scene is classic, although the motive is dated. Fans of Miss Silver and Agatha Christie will love it.