Reproduced from www.britainzimbabwe.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/BZS-Review_Dec21.pdf
British Zimbabwe Society Review: Issue 21/4 December 2021
Pat Brickhill on a Bulawayo-based detective story
All Come to Dust, by Bryony Rheam
Bryony Rheam has written a ground-breaking book – a captivating detective story set entirely in present-day Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Rheam explores a different writing style from her debut novel, This September Sun, and presents the reader with a story that is more than the traditional detective genre (and which perhaps embraces several genres). The novel opens as we meet Chief Inspector Edmund Dube shortly after a murder has been committed in the leafy inner suburbs of Bulawayo. Marcia Pullman, a wealthy but unpopular socialite, has been discovered dead in her bedroom. Dube, who is an apparently high-ranking policeman, is in on the case (despite a lack of co-operation from his colleagues) . Reminiscent of Agatha Christie All Come to Dust is reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s work, as Bryony Rheam leaves tantalising clues and red herrings, leading the reader down several cul-de-sacs. The initial pace of the novel was slow but I enjoyed the book more as the pace increased. Chief Inspector Dube meets Craig Martin on the day of the murder and commandeers his battered Renault to reach the scene of the crime. Martin is destined to play a central, sometimes comical role. The eccentric Edmund Dube appears even more of an enigma than Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. At times it was difficult to fully accept his role as the protagonist and, in spite of the difficulties he grappled with as a child and now as an adult, I struggled to feel compassion or much fondness for him. On the other hand, the oddball Craig Martin is far more developed as a character. He almost demands our attention as we find out about his struggles with life. Flashbacks reveal both men’s childhood experiences: Edmund Dube has grown up straddling two cultures, and feels unaccepted by both the black and white communities, while Craig Martin has survived an unhappy and sometimes tragic childhood.
I applaud the author’s decision to weave social commentary through her story. She refers to the realities, inequalities and prejudices familiar to anyone who grew up in Rhodesia and after 1980 Zimbabwe when, among other changes, facilities previously reserved for whites were opened to all races. Bryony Rheam shares her knowledge of the majestic Bulawayo landscape with striking portrayal of the everyday life and struggles that have affected so many Zimbabweans, especially in the last 20 years. She handles her subject sensitively, though strongly enough to make the reader aware that all was not well in society when Edmund Dube was a boy. This state of affairs affected not only his immediate family (his father goes to join the struggle and his mother has to support him by working a domestic worker in town) but also the country as a whole. Edmund, fairly unusually, is taken into the home and under the wing of a Scottish couple, the MacDougals, who employ his mother. They appear to do all they can to provide opportunities which, otherwise, he might not have had. Archibald MacDougal is also a policeman, a Detective Inspector, and this seems to provide the inspiration for Edmund’s later career choice. Another legacy of the MacDougals is Edmund’s unusual passion for fictional and television British detectives.
Very cleverly, the reader is left guessing, almost to the end of the book, as to the reason for the crime or identity of the murderer. Edmund Dube – like Poirot – gathers the potential murderers together and questions each in turn to identify the real culprit. Bryony Rheam’s story telling is gripping, very clever, sometimes sad, often amusing, but very occasionally I felt was not totally credible. I found the closing pages of the book as she tied up all the loose ends a little too neatly and the convenient connections slightly unconvincing – perhaps because she presented us with rather too many potential murderers and a victim without a single redeeming quality. While this may not be have been completely my cup of tea, I congratulate Bryony Rheam on her achievement and I am sure we have not seen the last of this Zimbabwean writer. I think fans of the traditional detective story will enjoy this book.
Reproduced from NB Magazine's January Crime Fiction Round Up
An intriguing Zimbabwean murder mystery, Rheam’s Bulawayo set crime novel is at once comforting for its cosy crime scenario but also disturbing for its subversion of the associated tropes creating a more complex and relevant read. The writing is easy, hinting at a golden age style tale of skulduggery, opening with a woman found dead in her bedroom, stabbed with a letter opener. However, this is Zimbabwe not Surrey and Rheam explores themes of racism and the colonial legacy and how those things haven’t changed enough while policing has got harder and poorer.
Marcia Pullman of 274 Clark Road does all her own cooking for her little social gatherings, there is one today. She deems the ‘girl’ Dorcas useless and the gardener, Malakai, had to be fired for incompetence and laziness. Food prepared, Dorcas sent out for the afternoon, Marcia lies down for a rest before book club. Later when the first guest arrives and Dorcas returns they are surprised there’s no sign of Marcia downstairs. Eventually venturing to the mistress's bedroom Marcia’s body is found.
Chief Inspector Edmund Dube of the Bulawayo central police station is grappling with another report, there are no Ss or Rs on his typewriter. He dreams of solving a real crime so, when a constable comes looking for super Detective Inspector Khumalo, Edmund jumps in to take the case. A white woman in the suburb has been killed and the missing gardener is the prime suspect. Edmund has to get a lift to the crime scene from a citizen outside the station. When Dorcas sees the commandeered driver she says he is the killer, she saw him argue with Marcia before, Edmund will have to follow that up. Meanwhile, Mr Pullman is indignant that the very clever detective Khumalo isn’t on the case but Edmund holds his ground. The strange thing is that Marcia was found inside a locked house and there are no unaccounted for keys. She was also dead when the would be killer stabbed her. A mystery indeed.
There are several interesting characters, a healthy dose of humour, often arising from misinterpretation, misunderstanding and jumping to conclusions. There’s also the serious aspects of modern Zimbabwe’s troubled society and its past trauma. This is genuinely subversive and fun.
https://nbmagazine.co.uk/the-verdict-january-crime-fiction-round-up/
All Come to Dust is published in Zimbabwe by amaBooks, and in the UK by amaBooks and Parthian Books, where it is available through www.parthianbooks.com/products/all-come-to-dust .
Crime fiction with a central detective character is a favourite staple on the bookshelves. All Come To Dust by Bryony Rheam takes the stereotypes, shakes them out of the box and upends expectations. The first few pages take the reader into an “other” place, familiar yet strange. The colours, smells and the noises of suburban Bulawayo are woven throughout this book, creating an atmosphere that leaves a lingering smell of hot concrete, bright bloom bursts and a coating of orange dust on the tongue. A post colonial world that has aged relics from Britain trying to cling on to an outdated way of life while the pulse and chaos of modern Zimbabwe strains to burst through underneath.
Chief Inspector Edmund Dube is a diligent police officer who works methodically with a razor sharp instinct for the truth. Polite, deferential and softly spoken, he’s a man who puts up with the broken typewriters, scuffed shoes and the down at heel environs of his shabby Bulawayo police station. He realises not only is he the wrong person for the job, he is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Forced to ask for a lift from a stranger because the only working police car is being used elsewhere, he is light years away from his cherished schoolboy reading book world of traditional English policing.
At first slightly comical and almost pathetic – we soon come to realise that Edmund Dube is a sharp observant operator.
He is no Adam Dalgleish, Morse or even Poirot but could stand shoulder to shoulder with those literary detective creations as he starts his crime solving. The novel flits between present day and Dube’s 1970s upbringing in a world that has slowly disappeared. A bright African schoolboy, Dube’s childhood memories provide clues to his personality and deliver an intriguing mystery story arc.
Victim Marcia Pullman is the typical suburban social climber, a bully and a snob. Her murder – behind the closed security gates of a house staffed with sullen servants and an obnoxious husband – sparks a classic detective whodunnit. Bryony Rheam deftly draws a colourful cast of believable characters that have flaws, secrets and many human failings.
Chief Inspector Dube has to battle against corruption, ingrained racism and class prejudice as he works his way to the book’s conclusion. Bryony Rheam has created a richly detailed, hugely enjoyable and satisfying crime novel, dense with clues, twists and turns. It’s no surprise that this book has already gained prestigious awards in her native country.
A murder mystery with an African aura that refreshingly skews traditional reference points for English language crime fiction.
Sue Lewis
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Bryony Rheam's well-crafted murder mystery takes a hard look at life in contemporary Zimbabwe. Much of the story takes place in a historically white suburb of Bulawayo. Several of the inhabitants are hard up after the runaway inflation, but those who have access to hard currency – in one way or another – are doing much better. The latter include Marcia Pullman and her husband who run a tour operation, but they clearly have many lucrative side interests.
Then Marcia is discovered dead in her home with a letter opener sticking out of her chest. Chief Inspector Edmund Dube goes to the scene, having wheedled a lift from a man at the police station who is arguing about a speeding fine. Dube realizes that there’s not enough blood and it’s clear that the victim was dead before she was stabbed. The pathologist, a friend of Marcia’s husband, agrees and says she died of natural causes. Nevertheless, the question of why she was stabbed remains. The crime is laid at the door of the recently dismissed gardener, but Edmund believes there's a lot more to it than that. However, the senior officers at the police station seem intent on thwarting his efforts to get to the bottom of the case.
Edmund identifies a cast of suspects: Marcia’s husband; the Pullmans’ maid and gardener; the peculiar neighbor; Janet Peters who was bullied by her, and has an invalid mother; a mysterious woman interested in Marcia's old records; and Craig Martin, who has publicly threatened her.
Superficially, the novel seems to follow the usual tropes of the detective story genre, but as the author delves into Edmund's past, the book's rich characterizations and subtle surprises remind one more of PD James than Agatha Christie. Nothing is as it seems.
My pick for the best African mystery of 2021.
Michael Stanley
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Marcia Pullman was preparing for her book group when she felt a headache coming on and decided to lie down. When Janet, a member of the group, arrives she finds Marcia in her bed with a letter opener protruding from her chest. The coroner determined that she was dead of natural causes before being stabbed, but why stab a corpse? Chief Inspector Edmund Dube takes the call reporting the death and arrives to investigate. Dube was influenced to become a policeman from the images of investigators in novels and movies, but he is soft spoken and overlooked by everyone at his station. Marcia’s husband has connections with the police and Dube is soon warned off. Determined to find answers, he continues to investigate on his own. The story builds slowly as Dube questions Janet, Marcia’s husband, her maid Dorcas, Craig Martin, a man who recently threatened her, and her neighbor Roland. Each time he reaches out to them he learns more of their connections and history with Marcia and realizes that she had a hold over each of them and they all hated her.
Set in a primarily white suburb in Zimbabwe, this is a contemporary mystery that deals with the faltering economy and racial relations in a post-colonial society. Bryony Rheam builds her story slowly until the final third of the book, which moves rapidly to the conclusion. In a Poirot-like confrontation, Dube gathers his suspects together and reveals their secrets and his conclusions with a truly surprising twist. All Come to Dust is a lengthy mystery that is beautifully written and well worth the time that it takes to follow Chief Inspector Dube’s quest for the truth.
Jean Kolinofsky
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A fabulous combination of eclectic Bulawayo characters with strong character development, vivid writing, and a great murder mystery to boot.
Absolutely loved this.
Margie Rees
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