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Tamar Myers is the author of the Belgian Congo series and the Den of Antiquity series as well as the Pennsylvania-Dutch mysteries. Born and raised in the Congo, she lives in North Carolina.
The Witch Doctor's Wife
by Tamar Myers
eBook
$5.49
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ISBN-13:
9780061944116
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
- Publication date: 10/20/2009
- Series: Belgian Congo Mystery , #1
- Sold by: HARPERCOLLINS
- Format: eBook
- Pages: 320
- Sales rank: 312,094
- File size: 2 MB
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From beloved mystery writer Tamar Myers comes an enthralling tale of duty, greed, danger, and miracles in equatorial Africa.
The Congo beckons to young Amanda Brown in 1958, as she follows her missionary calling to the mysterious "dark continent" far from her South Carolina home. But her enthusiasm cannot cushion her from the shock of a very foreign culture—where competing missionaries are as plentiful as flies, and oppressive European overlords are busy stripping the land of its most valuable resource: diamonds.
Little by little, Amanda is drawn into the lives of the villagers in tiny Belle Vue—and she is touched by the plight of the local witch doctor, a man known as Their Death, who has been forced to take a second job as a yardman to support his two wives. But when First Wife stumbles upon an impossibly enormous uncut gem, events are set in motion that threaten to devastate the lives of these people Amanda has come to admire and love—events that could lead to nothing less than murder.
Richly evocative, written with warmth and humor, and based on the author's own experiences, Tamar Myers's The Witch Doctor's Wife is an unforgettable African journey with a spellbinding mystery at its heart.
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Publishers Weekly
Myers draws on her own experiences as the daughter of white missionaries living in the Belgian Congo for this dazzling novel full of authentic African lore. In 1958, Amanda Brown and her fellow passengers suffer only minor injuries when the plane bringing them to the diamond mining community of Belle Vue makes a crash landing. The 23-year-old South Carolina native, who's spent six months in Belgium studying French and the Congolese language of Tshiluba, has come to Belle Vue to run a missionary guesthouse, where she soon employs one of a local witch doctor's two wives, the delightful, no-nonsense Cripple. The discovery of a huge uncut diamond sets off a chain of unfortunate events leading to Cripple's being charged with murder. This marks a major breakthrough for Myers as she displays storytelling skills not recently seen in the claustrophobic confines of her Pennsylvania-Dutch (Batter Off Dead) and Den of Antiquity (Poison Ivory) mystery series. (Nov.)
Rock Hill Herald
Myers’ charming sense of humor lightens the darkness of her subject (murder, of course!).Mary Alice Monroe
Only an author with an intimate knowledge of the Congo—its people, landscape, and culture—could write a novel with such confidence and authority. This is a lush novel, rich with tension and intricately woven, believable characters. Myers clearly loves the Congo—and you will love this book. I did!Carolyn Hart
Tamar Myers’ mesmerizing novel of mid-twentieth century Congo plumbs passion, despair, and courage. The Witch Doctor’s Wife will long linger in the hearts and minds of readers. Authentic. Powerful. Triumphant.Kirkus Reviews
A tale of wildly clashing cultures in the Belgian Congo. American missionary Amanda Brown arrives in 1958, eager to save souls. Her plane crashes on arrival, but she survives and is rescued by a mysterious Nigerian. The small town of Belle Vue is the center of a diamond-mining region. Even the least significant Europeans live quite well, while the natives on the other side of the river struggle for existence. When the witch doctor, Their Death, finds his second wife's youngest child sucking on an enormous uncut diamond, his efforts to turn the stone into a better life for his family unleash a chain of disasters. His first wife, the clever Cripple, replaces the stone with glass; the white man approached by Their Death for help becomes embroiled in endless plots with his male lover and the local head of the mining consortium. Amanda hires Cripple to work with her surly housekeeper and becomes fond of the witch doctor's (first) wife, although neither fully understands the other's very different lifestyle. Amanda, who has made no friends among the Europeans, defends Cripple when she falsely confesses to murdering a white man. The author's personal experience as a child brought up by missionaries in the Congo lends authenticity to every word. A radical but welcome departure for Myers (As the World Churns, 2008, etc.). Fans of Alexander McCall Smith may well find Cripple as delightful as Precious Ramotswe.