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Death in Zanzibar
M.M. Kaye Book Review

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Plot Summary of Death in Zanzibar
"This is a 1950s British murder mystery with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure. Dany Ashton is traveling alone (gasp!) to meet her stepfather and mother at the family home in Zanzibar. She stays in a hotel overnight in London before flying out, gets accidentally locked out of her room, meets a man in the hallway who assists her only to find that her room has been ransacked, someone has stolen her passport and planted murder evidence there. Dany tells Lash (who is on a drunken binge) and he helps her by allowing her to use his secretary's passport, airline seat and accommodations to Zanzibar. They color and cut her hair and away they go. When Lash awakens many travel hours later, he does not remember his plan to get Dany to Zanzibar.

Dany's stepfather had asked her to pick up a packet at his attorney's office before meeting them and this attorney was killed shortly after her visit. There is a seemingly unconnected murder of a fellow passenger at an airport on the way to Africa. After the pair arrived in Zanzibar, there is yet another murder on the first evening in the family home. Dany is the first to discover it. Lash is staying in the guest house so he is suspect. Many of the guests at the family home may have their own reasons for murder - 3 million of them. This is the amount that was suspected to be buried somewhere on the stepfather's property in Zanzibar by a relative over 70 years ago. The map of the buried treasure is only to be released after his death and was in the packet that Dany picked up from the solicitor. But that packet is now missing.

As Dany travels around Zanzibar trying to figure out who is capable of these cold acts, various suspects arise only to be abandoned until a bonfire on the beach."

Jody T. Bixby, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Death in Zanzibar
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%




Tone of story - very upbeat
How difficult to spot villain? - Very difficult--no foreshadowing/clues
Time/era of story: - 1930's-1950's
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 70%
Kind of investigator - amateur citizen investigator
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot? - searching for $$$/treasure
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - student
Age: - a teen
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How much violence does he/she use? - none
Ethnicity/Race - British
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK
Africa Yes
Island? Yes
Island: - on vacation

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths? - 3-4
Unusual forms of death - poisoning
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to Death in Zanzibar
The Westing Game by Elen Raskin
Murder At the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
Murder in the Blue Room by Elliott Roosevelt
A Deadly Shade of Gold by John D. MacDonald
Letter From Home by Carolyn Hart


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M.M. Kaye Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Jody T. Bixby  

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