Why Prequels? - Guest Post by Michael Stanley

Michael Stanley: Why Prequels?
 
In many series, there comes a point where the author decides to write a prequel—a book that shows the series protagonist before the role she or he plays in the series. The benefit to readers is that they learn how the character was shaped by earlier events and relationships. A powerful example is the Charles Todd prequel novella The Piper, where we see Inspector Ian Rutledge during the First World War and its devastating effect on him that molds him for the whole series.

When we started writing A Carrion Death, we didn’t plan that Kubu would be the protagonist. As debut novelists, we heeded the advice of experienced writers, who said we should write about what we knew. So, as academics, we planned that a brilliant young ecology professor would discover a body in the Kalahari that had been left in the desert for hyenas to devour, and go on to solve the mystery. The ecologist would realize at once that the death was no accident because the body he found was naked. That made it a likely murder, and we needed a police detective to investigate. 
 
So David Bengu, from the Criminal Investigation Department in Gaborone, appeared. A very large man with the nickname Kubu, meaning hippopotamus in the local language, he climbed into his Land Rover, well provisioned with sandwiches and drinks. As he headed into the desert, he listened to his favorite opera arias and sang along (badly). He also had time to muse about how a Bushman school friend had shown him how to look beyond the superficial, and to see clues of hidden things. That was the spark that made Kubu want to become a detective. He would train himself to look beyond the obvious.
 
By the time this larger-than-life character had visited the scene of the crime and interviewed the men who’d found the body, he’d made it clear to us that he had to be the main character. That came as a complete surprise. We thought we were in charge of the story. 
 
Five more novels followed where Kubu was the key investigator. During the series, we discovered he was smart and good at solving murders, and he became more solid, more three-dimensional, but there was nothing that explained how he’d gone from school to being the star detective in the Botswana CID. It was not just a hole in his background, but, in a way, a gap in his character.
 
We wanted to fill that gap and perhaps discover a younger, less self-confident Kubu, who might be an intriguing character in his own right. As a bonus, we could pull the director of the CID, Jacob Mabaku, out from behind his desk and show his background and achievements, and why he became director. 
 
Diamonds are key to Botswana’s prosperity. We thought there might be a backstory involving Debswana, the Botswana diamond giant owned jointly by the powerful De Beers group and the government. Setting the story twenty years in the past would be appropriate since that was the height of the diamond boom. What about a massive diamond robbery that could shake Botswana’s credibility as a safe, stable, country? Immediately, things started to take shape. The diamond heist takes place and suddenly everyone in the CID is thrown into the case, even Kubu, the raw detective in his first week on the job. Facets of Death, the first Kubu prequel, was on its way.
 
As we wrote the story, we watched Kubu develop, having insights, but also making the mistakes that only experience can avoid. He earns respect, but also opprobrium. Facets of Death was a journey of exploration for us. We learnt a lot about how Kubu became the CID’s best detective and about who he is as a person. We also discovered that we liked this young man with his insecurities. And we liked his boss as an insightful detective whose instincts about solving a case were matched by his instincts in mentoring Kubu. 

At the end of Facets of Death, we realized we were only at the beginning of the journey that led to A Carrion Death. Kubu is painfully shy and far from having a real girlfriend let alone a wife. He and Mabaku are not friends or even colleagues, but rather superior and junior, mentor and mentee. We enjoyed these “new” characters and wanted to follow them on their journey. So we decided to write another prequel, one that chronologically would come after Facets of Death.
 
We both love the Okavango Delta area of Botswana, a wonderful network of waterways and wildlife where the Kavango River loses itself in the Kalahari Desert. The Okavango is potentially threatened by excessive use of the water from the river before it reaches the delta. What, we wondered, would be the effect of a major water project being set up just south of Shakawe where the river enters Botswana from Namibia? 
 
We are also fascinated by the cultures of the Bushman peoples and they have featured in a major way in three of our books—A Carrion Death, Death of the Mantis, and Dying to Live. Originally spread over most of southern Africa, they were gradually driven into the arid desert areas as both white and black settlers moved into the lands they roamed and persecuted them. We postulated a massacre of Bushmen that had taken place far enough in the past to be hidden, but recently enough for the discovery to be a threat to the perpetrators.
 
During the story, Kubu and Mabaku become colleagues, and Kubu and McGregor become friends. As for Kubu and his future wife, Joy, well, read the book. 
 
The Kubu of A Deadly Covenant is not the Kubu of Facets of Death. Nor is he the Kubu of A Carrion Death. But he’s getting there.

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Michael Stanley is the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. Both were born in South Africa and have worked in academia and business.

On a flying trip to Botswana, they watched a pack of hyenas hunt, kill, and devour a wildebeest, eating both flesh and bones. That gave them the premise for their first mystery, A Carrion Death, which introduced Detective David ‘Kubu’ Bengu of the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department. It was a finalist for five awards. The series has been critically acclaimed, and their third book, Death of the Mantis, won the Barry Award for Best Paperback Original mystery and was shortlisted for an Edgar award. Deadly Harvest was shortlisted for an International Thriller Writers award.

***

A Deadly Covenant

While digging a trench for a new water project, a backhoe operator unearths the skeleton of a long dead Bushman. Kubu and Scottish pathologist, Ian MacGregor, are sent to sort out the formalities, but the situation rapidly gets out of hand. MacGregor discovers eight more skeletons of Bushmen including women and children. However, the locals deny any knowledge of the event. When an elder of the village is murdered at his home, the local police believe it was the result of a robbery gone wrong. Kubu thinks otherwise. So does an elderly woman who believes it was the work of Mami Wata, a powerful river spirit. 

When she dies in an apparent crocodile attack, suspicions rise.

Things become still more complicated when a mysterious Bushman appears at the massacre site, collapses, then disappears again, but seems connected to the murders in some way. 

Kubu’s boss, Assistant Superintendent Mabaku, joins them as accusations of corruption are levelled at the water project, and international anger over the massacre of the Bushman families builds. But how do the recent murders link to the dead Bushmen? As they investigate, they uncover a deadly covenant made many years before by an unknown group, and they begin to fear that their own lives may be in danger.

Frederick Ramsay: R.I.P.

Frederick Ramsay: R.I.P.  Sad News. Fred will be missed.

Eleanor Ramsay posted this on his Facebook Page:

Dear friends and fans of Fred. It is my sad task to let you know that he passed away into the arms of the angels in the early morning hours of August 23. He had been battling an aggressive return of kidney cancer and, despite our hopes that he might benefit from new immunotherapy treatments, the cancer could not be contained. If you know him, you knew that he was the definition of a Renaissance Man. He was a teacher, ordained minister, scholar, artist and, of course, a writer of 19 wonderful mysteries. He was almost finished his 20th book, The Onion, which will be completed and published.

Fred was a loving husband to his wife Susan, and a father to her three children, Julie, Karen and Sam. He had three children from his previous marriage; Jeff, Eleanor and Matt. In addition, he was grandpa extraordinaire to his son Jeff's children Kopano, Ati, and Alex; to Julie's daughters Kiri and Allie; and to Sam's child, Wyatt.

A man of deep faith and a marvelous sense of humor, it was said he could even make the angels laugh.

Services will be held at La Casa de Christo, 6300 E. Bell Road, Scottsdale, AZ, on Wednesday, August 30 at 11am. The service will also be live streamed at the church's website.

While we will miss him terribly, we are comforted by the knowledge that he lived an amazingly rich life, touched so many people, and leaves a remarkable legacy.

***

Dr. Frederick Ramsay was born in Baltimore, the son of a respected teacher researcher and scientist. He graduated from Washington and Lee University in Virginia and received his doctorate from the University of Illinois. After a stint in the Army, he joined the faculty of the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, where he taught Anatomy, Embryology and Histology; engaged in research and served as an Associate Dean. He is the author of several scientific research and general technical articles. During this time he also pursued studies in theology and in 1971 was ordained an Episcopal priest. After leaving the University, he served two congregations in the Baltimore area full time and several part-time.

After retiring from full-time ministry, he began writing full time. His first novel, Artscape, was published by Poisoned Pen Press and launched July, 2004. His second, Secrets, (Poisoned Pen Press), was published in August of 2005 and Impulse, July 2006, was cited by Publishers Weekly as one of the one hundred best books 2006. He is the author of the Ike Schwartz mysteries, a series beginning with Predators set in Botswana, and a stand alone, religious historical fiction-Judas the Gospel of betrayal. 19 Books in all with a twentieth almost finished.

A TASTE OF AFRICA: MICHAEL STANLEY

I love the award winning Michael Stanley Kubu series set in Botswana.. well, I love both Stan Trollip and Michael Sears, partners in crime who craft this series together as Michael Stanley.  They've both been at my home in Berkeley for Literary Salons, and I've joined up with them at various mystery conventions. Stan splits his time between Minnesota and Knysna, South Africa, and Michael lives in Johannasburg, South Africa, and they've both spent plenty of time in the country of Botswana.

Retired South African professors, they have worked in academia and business. Sears is a mathematician, specializing in geological remote sensing. Trollip is an educator, interested in how computers can improve teaching and learning, and a pilot. They have been on numerous flying safaris to Botswana and Zimbabwe, where it was always exciting to buzz dirt airstrips to shoo the elephants off. Their many adventures include tracking lions, fighting bush fires, being charged by an elephant, and losing their navigation maps over the Kalahari when their aircraft door popped open. These trips have fed their love both for the bush, as well as for Botswana.

Books in the series: A CARRION DEATH; THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU (A DEADLY TRADE); DEATH OF THE MANTIS, DEADLY HARVEST.

Michael Stanley: A Taste of Africa

Our protagonist, Assistant Superintendent David “Kubu” Bengu, is a large man by any standards, and he loves to eat. It is not by accident that his nickname “Kubu” means hippopotamus in the local language of Botswana. He may appear large, slow, and placid, but like his namesake is dangerous when roused.

About six months ago, we received an email from Vincent Moureau, a Kubu fan in Brussels, Belgium. Not only did he suggest that we put together a small cookbook of Kubu’s favorite foods, but he also proposed the very catchy title of KUkBUk. What a great pun! We were intrigued.

The cuisine of southern Africa has had a variety of influences. The staple diet of the black population revolves around corn meal, which is made into a dry porridge called pap. Dry pap is held in the fingers and used to eat a meat stew or a tomato-onion sauce. It is now part of a braaivleis (barbeque).

The Dutch brought slaves from Malaya and other eastern countries to the Cape in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries. Their delicate curries are now part of the national cuisine.

The British brought typical English cooking to South Africa – roasts, steak and kidney pies, fish on Fridays, and over-cooked vegetables. Fortunately (from a culinary perspective), they also brought tens of thousands of laborers from India to work on the sugar cane plantations on South Africa’s east coast. So delicious hot curries are also on most menus.

Although food plays a big role in Kubu’s life, there are only two cooking scenes in our first four books. In THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU (A DEADLY TRADE outside North America), the eccentric camp cook, Moremi, makes a very traditional South African dish of Malay heritage called bobotie, while being watched by his tame go-away bird. At the end of DEATH OF THE MANTIS, Kubu has to make good on a pledge he gave to his wife, Joy, to help a little more on the domestic scene. So he cooks his first meal ever – a completely non-traditional meal of sweet and sour pork. Despite several near disasters, he manages to produce the meal – at least a reasonable facsimile of it – a mere two hours late. Fortunately Joy is touched by Kubu’s efforts, and the meal is deemed a success.

So what does Kubu like to eat? Kubu is very cosmopolitan in his food choices (although he dislikes tripe, which is a traditional Botswana dish), and he’s willing to try any type of cuisine once. He would claim that the quality of the food is of prime importance to him. Joy would probably interject that quality is important only if there is sufficient quantity.

So you get the picture. Meals need to be big! Kubu’s preference is to have a multi-course meal, with starters, main course, and dessert, liberally lubricated with the best wine he can afford which, on an Assistant Superintendent’s salary, is usually ordinary table wine.

A favorite appetizer is chicken livers peri-peri. It is a rich, usually generous dish of cooked chicken livers marinated in a peri-peri sauce. As far as we know, peri-peri originated in Mozambique and is a spicy concoction of lime juice, vinegar, garlic, paprika, and dried chilies. It can be quite hot, which Kubu likes. The chicken livers are spread on buttered brown bread. When all the livers are gone, the remaining sauce is perfect for mopping up. Ideally Kubu would like a dry Riesling as an accompaniment.

For the main course, Kubu enjoys above all a huge steak, preferably a rump steak cooked medium rare, smothered in monkey-gland sauce (Don’t gag! It’s not from monkeys!) and surrounded by French fries.

Apparently monkey gland sauce got its name at the Savoy Hotel in London and was named in honor of a Russian-born French scientist, Dr. Abrahamovitch Serge Voronoff. Voronoff became famous for his treatment to reverse the ageing process in humans – by grafting monkey testicle tissue onto human testicles. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had a professor in one of his Sherlock Holmes stories inject himself with monkey-gland extract.

One of the staff at the Savoy Hotel introduced the sauce at the Old Carlton Hotel in Johannesburg. It became a hit and has remained popular in South Africa ever since.

If available, Kubu would choose a heavy South African Cabernet Sauvignon to quaff with the steak.

To round out the meal, Kubu would probably choose something simple like vanilla ice cream (3 scoops) smothered with hot chocolate, but a malva pudding or a melktert (milk tart) would also be acceptable. These last two are traditional farm desserts in South Africa.

Finally he’d enjoy a cup of coffee with hot milk, followed – for the purely medicinal purpose of settling the stomach, of course – by a decent South African brandy.

We have received several emails from readers, worried that if we let Detective Kubu continue to eat the way he has been, he is likely to suffer a heart attack. Joy is also concerned about Kubu’s weight and has made him promise to have a salad for lunch. Kubu, of course, dutifully complies but, since Joy didn’t say only a salad, he augments the meager contents of the lunch box she gives him with something more substantial – such as a steak.

The KUkBUk idea was such a good one that we have put together an e-book with recipes for many of Kubu’s favorite African dishes, including monkey gland sauce and his preferred non-alcoholic drink, the steelworks, made from kola tonic, lime juice, ginger beer, and Angostura bitters. 

We also commissioned the very talented Danish artist, Tao Wedfall Lydiksen, to create four cartoons of Kubu enjoying his food and wine. We’d be delighted if you try out a few of the recipes. Let us know if you like them at michaelstanley@detectivekubu.com.

Bob appetit and cheers!

To order A Taste of Africa by Michael Stanley, go Here.