The Idol of Mombasa
In 1912, newlyweds Vera and Justin Tolliver return to the British Protectorate of East Africa, where they met in Strange Gods, first in this mystery series. He is an idealistic young English police officer; she was raised in the highlands of the interior as the daughter of Scottish missionaries. Tolliver, however, is now posted to the coast at the port of Mombasa, while the Grand Mufti is visiting from Egypt. When first an African and then an Arab are found murdered, the investigations are hindered by wider political considerations. There are suspicions that the illegal slave trade is involved; but although banned throughout the British Empire, slave-holding has long been a custom in Arab households, and authorities are reluctant to stir up unrest among the Moslem community in a zone still under the nominal sovereignty of the Sultan of Zanzibar.
In many ways, the mystery is overshadowed by the cultural and political currents that the investigators must navigate. Customs differ among the African tribes; tensions exist between the different ethnic groups, European and Asian, Arab and African; religious beliefs are a source of simmering conflict, particularly between devout Moslems and Christian missionaries; class distinctions and snobbery, both between and within the ethnic groups, is rampant; attitudes towards women are condescending and repressive. Alfieri has clearly done her homework.
Stylistically, the writing can be awkward, and the shifting points of view, not only from Vera and Tolliver, but from his sergeant Kwai Libazo and others, make for a disjointed narrative. This does, nonetheless, reflect the confusion created by so many unfamiliar cultural attitudes. The novel offers an intriguing glimpse into life in an obscure but colorful corner of the British Empire that was destined to gain some notoriety as the century progressed.
