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Death in Zanzibar
 
 

Death in Zanzibar [Paperback]


4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Book Description

From one of our most beloved and renowned authors, here is a new edition of this classic masterpiece of mystery and romance.

Dany Ashton is invited to vacation at her stepfather's house in Zanzibar, but even before her airplane takes off there is a stolen passport, a midnight intruder--and murder. In Zanzibar, the family house is Kivulimi, the mysterious "House of Shade," where Dany and the rest of the guests learn that one of them is a desperate killer. The air of freedom and nonchalance that opened the house party fades into growing terror, as the threat of further violence flowers in the scented air of Zanzibar. Richly evocative, Death in Zanzibar will charm long-time fans and introduce new ones to this celebrated writer.

About the Author

M.M. Kaye was born in India and spent much of her childhood and adult life there. She became world famous with the publication of her monumental bestseller, The Far Pavilions. She is also the author of the bestselling Trade Wind and Shadow of the Moon. She lives in England.

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The heavy brocade curtains stirred as though they had been blown by a breath of wind, and a billowing fold touched the corner of the dressing-table and overset a small bottle of nail varnish. Read the first page
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4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3.0 out of 5 stars All right if you like that sort of thing, Aug 15 2000
This review is from: Death in Zanzibar (Paperback)
Rather run-of-the-mill British-style (i.e., improbable persons doing improbable things) murder mystery with the usual, somewhat tired cast of supposedly interesting characters in an exotic location. Could have used less of the British jet-set and more Zanzibar. "Trade Wind" (also set in Zanzibar) is better.
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5.0 out of 5 stars great, April 21 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Death in Zanzibar (Hardcover)
Another of M.M. Kaye's great 'Death in' series. I enjoy the old British empire settings, exotic locales under British rule. All the usual British types seeing the sights, whispering in the moonlight, plotting murder, keeping secrets. The historical facts and physical decriptions are superb. Lots of fun reading.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 4.2 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing and well-written!, Jun 9 1999
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Death in Zanzibar (Paperback)
This terrific installment in M. M. Kaye's "Death in" series is a fun, entertaining read that is also written with intelligence and wit. Kaye weaves a spell with exotic islands, mysterious characters, and of course, true romance. It is even better if you first read Kaye's exceptional novel "Trade Wind", as "Death in Zanzibar" can be taken as a sequel to it.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Mystery and Romance, Mar 29 2005
By Bobby Underwood "starlighthotel" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Death in Zanzibar (Paperback)
If you like old-fashioned mystery and romance set in an exotic locale, this is a very fun read. M.M. Kaye wrote several of these atmospheric mystery romance novels which always incorporated some exotic setting she had been to as she and her husband moved all over the world. In the forward she writes that it is a Zanzibar which no longer exists, but one she saw and wanted to share before memories of it had faded into the sunset.

There is a light and entertaining feel to the overall story and a very likable heroine in Dany Ashton. The characters are colorful and well defined and fit right in to the time period. Lash is a young man-about-town who slowly comes into his own helping Dany with a ruse during their trip to Zanaibar and the House of Shade, where the mystery of why her hotel room was broken into and her passport taken deepens into murder and more.

Dany is sweet and endearing as she shows old-fashioned bravado during the course of the mystery. She will emerge from her mother's shadow and come into her own just as Lash does. There is, of course, an innocent and growing romance between the two and the reader knows how this will end long before they do. Kaye makes good use of the exotic locale as we see it through the eyes of her heroine, who is also seeing it for the first time.

This is a very fun and entertaining mystery with the values and mores of a bygone era. Perhaps the best way to describe it would be to say it has much the same feel as watching one of those early 1930's mystery films set in an exotic locale; the kind you catch late at night when you can't sleep and enjoy all the more because it was a surprise.

All of Kaye's mysteries fit this bill and this one is perhaps my favorite. If you like your mystery and romance a bit on the old-fashioned side, you will enjoy this greatly, as I did. A fun summer read.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A good mystery, but hasn't aged well in terms of characters, Jan 2 2006
By A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Death in Zanzibar (Paperback)
This is quite an odd book, it is really a sequel, of sorts, to one of Kaye's most famous books, Trade Winds. In that book set in Mid nineteenth century, the reprobate Rory (emory) Frost, had married Hero, but left behind a huge cache of gold which they believed cursed, unlucky and completely unwanted. They left it for future generations to decide.

And this brings us to the start of this mystery novel, as part of his will Rory Frost requested that his papers not be released for 70 years, this included a strange letter giving a clue to the treasure. His descendent, Tyson Frost, finds a reference to where the letter is, and gets his step-daughter Dany to bring the letter out to him in Zanzibar. Her trip is Fraught with problems, someone is trying to set her up by stealing her passport and planting a gun on her. Then the lawyer whom she just visited is brutally murdered. She is forced to assume a new identity and with the help of a man she has just met, Lash, she makes the long flight to Zanzibar which takes her via Kenya and some long layovers.

Even once in the House of Shade in Zanzibar she is still not safe as murders continue, setting her up, but her room is ransacked and the secret letter stolen. She is set up for a murder and it is only dumb luck which saves her. There are suspects all around and the clues, while there are not helpful to solving who and what happens, especially when it turns out one of the murders is a red-herring.

This is more a romance than anything, as Lash and Dany fall in love with one another, only to have Dany's love challenged by the belief that he is in fact the murderer.

This book staggers around a bit and I didn't find it up to Kaye's usual standard. Her book Far Pavillions is one of my favourite books ever, while this one is really just a piece of fluff. A good fun read, but nothing I would want to read again.

The characters haven't 'aged' well. Perhaps it is in the nature of writing contemporary novels but the Dany is rather weak and ineffectual, and Lash a bit too smooth and careless for my liking.

Nice to have read it but really a 3.5 star book, not good but not by any means bad either.
 Go to Amazon.com to see all 9 reviews  4.2 out of 5 stars 
 
 
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