Ahmed’s Revenge

Richard Wiley

Wiley introduces us to Nora Grant, a young coffee farmer living in Kenya in the 1970s, a woman whose predicament is less obvious than Maki’s but no less dangerous.
Nora has disbelievingly stumbled upon her husband, Julius, engaged in what appears to be ivory smuggling, one of the Europeans’ dirtiest games. Before Nora can confront Julius, he is killed in accidental circumstances that soon look more like murder. Nora investigates her husband’s affairs, coming across a succession of people whose lives intertwine and intersect: her own father, living out his retirement in England in apparent innocence; Mr Smith, who might be a murderer; Mr N’Chele, who might be a smuggler; Miro, the opera singer; Detective Mubia, a policeman of divided loyalties–and Ahmed, a massive African elephant, whose remains are preserved at the National Museum in Nairobi and in whose name revenge must be sought.
Richard Wiley is a craftsman. His eclectic cast of misfits plays out an engaging story in a superbly wrought atmosphere of post- colonial tension and drama.

status	Copy #1 (8783): in
genre	Literature and Fiction » General Literature
publisher	Random House
publish date	1998
popularity	checked out 0 time(s)