Lost in Tanganyika
Thomas Thorpe continues his breezy, immensely enjoyable series of Victorian murder mysteries starring English married couple William and Elizabeth Darmon with this latest instalment, Lost in Tanganyika, which finds the enterprising couple escaping from Zanzibar in 1862 pursued by slavers.
In desperation, they are forced to trek into Niam Niam country, far from settled regions in what was then known as “Darkest Africa.” Thorpe is very skilled at piling on plot-twist after plot-twist (this time involving cannibals, hairsbreadth escapes, and the Red Sea slave trade) and making it all feel unforced, and although some of his scenes occasionally feel a bit too overtly staged, his ear for dialogue is superb.
This is the seventh Darmon adventure, but Thorpe re-introduces his characters and their world afresh in every book, so each one serves equally well as a starting-point for the entire run. The rich exotic feel of international travel that continues through the whole series is its strongest point –readers will find plenty to entertain them here.
