Foto do autor

Godfrey Warden James

Autor(a) de The Oxford Murders

12 Works 20 Membros 1 Review

About the Author

Séries

Obras de Godfrey Warden James

The Cambridge Murders (1936) 5 cópias
The Oxford Murders (1929) 5 cópias
Snakes and ladders 1 exemplar(es)
The Red queen club 1 exemplar(es)
Flame of the forest 1 exemplar(es)
The Queen's hall murder 1 exemplar(es)
The Porro Palaver (1928) (1928) 1 exemplar(es)
Crowner's Quest (1930) 1 exemplar(es)
Dream murder 1 exemplar(es)

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

There is no Common Knowledge data for this author yet. You can help.

Membros

Resenhas

"Adam Broome" (Godfrey Warden James) was a British government official, and spent years stationed in West Africa; and he draws upon his personal experiences in this mystery series, which (at least judging by this first example) is chiefly about the numerous challenges confronting the handful of British men tasked with administrating the Protectorate of Sierra Leone, the territory away from the coast which is occupied by native tribes. One of those challenges is the activities of the local branch of the "Porro", a cross-tribal secret society with a history of opposing British rule; while a challenge that threatens to become a crisis is the sudden death of District Commissioner Cargill, who governs from the village of Baoma in the unruly North Province. Cargill appears to have died of snakebite, and the local doctor rules as much; but then it is learned that Cargill's life had been threatened, and that a vial of snake venom has been stolen from the local dispensary. Cargill was a man with a knack for making enemies, and the suspects include his native mistress, with whom he violently quarrelled; her jilted lover; one of his native police force, demoted for abusing his powers; and a Creole government clerk, who Cargill humiliated both personally and in his role of lay-preacher. However, when someone takes a shot at the Chief of Police, and when there is an arson attack upon the house of the Assistant District Commissioner when the District Judge is staying with him, it seems that Cargill's death may not have been personal vengeance, but the beginning of a campaign of violence against the British administration... A mystery The Porro Palaver certainly is, but an unconventional one that plays out amongst the danger, isolation and physical hardship of West Africa, and where the investigation is severely hampered by the lack of every sort of resource, and by the need to navigate the shoals and currents of native belief and politics. Although, or so I gather, the Police Chief, Denzil Grigson, goes on to become the recurring series character, in this first novel the narrative is split fairly evenly amongst the four main white characters: the shrewd, hard-headed Grigson; Stevens, the young A. D. C., who finds himself shouldering heavy responsibilities in the wake of his senior's death; Mahaffy, the brusque Irish doctor; and 'Daddy' Dawson, a former trader who, if he hasn't exactly gone native, has at least gone bush. The black characters are, disappointingly but not unexpectedly, given short shrift, with a paternalistic contempt infusing all depictions. Nevertheless, this is a thoroughly engaging story which gains enormously from the unfamiliarity of its setting and subject matter.

    Mahaffy motioned towards a large, untidy packing-case reposing in the corner next the door which led into the dispensary, which was standing ajar. Stevens pulled it forward and sat down on it.
    "Well," said the Doctor, his manner as unconcerned and cheerful as usual, "here's a how-de-do, as the gentleman says in The Mikado. First the D. C. is found dead in his bed. Next, some feller has a pot at our friend the 'slop' here on a perfectly good bush road in broad daylight with a gun belonging to a supremely respectable gentleman of the butchering profession. As a minor side-show, His Excellency the Governor reports that my devout Christian dispenser is the probable author of an anonymous letter threatening to do in the D. C. unless he mends his wicked ways, and then the local burglar has a go at my dispensary and walks off with a bottle full of enough snake poison to kill fifty men!"
… (mais)
 
Marcado
lyzard | Jan 22, 2016 |

Estatísticas

Obras
12
Membros
20
Popularidade
#589,235
Resenhas
1
ISBNs
2