All Come to Dust 'is way above five stars'

To simply describe this beautifully written, densely textured, novel as a murder mystery would be an egregious understatement. To describe it as a police procedural, or a maverick cop, or a psychological thriller – for it is all of these – would similarly undersell it. To set the scene, the story centres around Edmund Dube, a black Zimbabwean, at two specific points in his life. In 1979, aged seven (the Jesuitical age when personality is formed), he is almost the only non-white pupil at a prestigious school in Bulawayo, Rhodesia. His access to the school had been facilitated by Chief Inspector McDougal, for whom Edmund’s mother worked as a maid. Now, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, he is Detective Chief Inspector Edmund Dube. The cultural shifts evidenced in that name change underpin this book but are subliminal not overt. The reader doesn’t need to know the history because the writing provides the ambience.

When a woman is reported as murdered, Edmund rushes off to investigate and quickly establishes that the paperknife buried in the centre of her chest is not the murder weapon, because she was dead before she was stabbed. The deceased is a white woman, Marcia Pullman, part of the dwindling number of such individuals, rich, influential, a pillar of society and detested by almost everyone. Her husband is a beefy, obnoxious, functioning alcoholic who, on the face of it, runs a safari company. Both of these sound like stereotypes, caricatures, but in this writer’s hands they are neither. Edmund begins an investigation but is swiftly removed from the case (if a natural death embellished with a dagger actually constitutes a case) and side-lined, ridiculed. Clearly the Pullmans have enormous influence within this kleptocracy. Edmund, and an unlikely (indeed random) assistant, must try to resolve if there is a murder; if so who is the murderer; what illegal activities surround the Pullmans' apparent control of the local powers-that-be? And what connection, if any, is there with his childhood?

The quality of the writing, the skilful use of metaphor, the sense of place, the depth of the characterisation, the intricacy of the plot, combine to produce a singular work. This book is way above five stars.

 from Denis Wheller, Goodreads

Bryony Rheam wins the Zimbabwe National Arts Merit Award for Outstanding Fiction

The Zimbabwean writer Bryony Rheam has added to her list of accolades by being awarded the Zimbabwean National Arts Merit Award in the category Outstanding Fiction. The award is for her novel All Come to Dust, which was initially published in Zimbabwe before being co-published by Parthian Books and amaBooks in the UK. The National Arts Merit Awards are the premier award given by the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe in recognition of outstanding achievements in the arts and culture. The inaugural award ceremony was held in February 2002. Since then, the award ceremonies have been held in February each year to recognise artists who had excelled in the previous year. The exception is this year's awards, which, because of Covid 19 restrictions, considered the work of artists from the previous two years.

All Come to Dust  was previously recognised in November 2021 by winning the Bulawayo Arts Award for Outstanding Literary Work (Fiction). 

Her novel, in which Detective Chief Inspector Edmund Dube investigates the suspicious death of socialite Marcia Pullman with the assistance of the ‘mullet hairstyled’ Craig Martin, can be considered a long-simmering, intriguing, twisting murder mystery. But it is also an incisive depiction of life in present-day  Bulawayo and of how the injustice and privilege of the past are still baked into everyday life.

Bryony Rheam commented: 

'I'm delighted that All Come to Dust is doing so well. Winning these two Zimbabwean awards is a reflection of the fact that local readers can identify with the plot and the issues it raises. It is a great honour to be recognised in my own country and this gives me the impetus to carry on. 

However, the book is not confined to Zimbabwean readers. I have been heartened by the number of reviewers and other readers who have said that they learned something about Zimbabwe and its history through reading the book. I believe that place and time affect the feel of a book, but characters are generally universal and they are what interests readers most. I didn't initially intend to write another crime novel, but now I see it as an interesting way to explore society. The African crime novel is different to the Western one for a number of reasons and I think that makes it quite an exciting genre to be exploring right now.'