The Witch Doctor's Wife

by Tamar Myers

Overview

“A lush novel, rich with tension and intricately woven, believable characters.  Myers clearly loves the Congo—and you will love this book. I did!”

—Mary Alice Monroe, bestselling author of Last Light over Carolina

 

With The Witch Doctor’s Wife, Tamar Myers delves into her personal history as the daughter of Christian missionaries in the Belgian Congo. Rich and alive with the sights and sounds of the continent—as exciting, evocative, charming, and suspenseful as Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels—Myer’s unforgettable excursion to colonial Africa recalls Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, even the Academy Award-nominated film Blood Diamond. Award-winning author Carolyn Hart raves: “Mesmerizing….The Witch Doctor’s Wife will long linger in the hearts and minds of readers. Authentic. Powerful. Triumphant.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061727832
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/20/2009
Series:	Belgian Congo Mystery , #1
Pages:	307
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.06(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Tamar Myers is the author of the Belgian Congo series and the Den of Antiquity series as well as the Pennsylvania-Dutch mysteries. Born and raised in the Congo, she lives in North Carolina.

What People are Saying About This

Mary Alice Monroe

“Only an author with an intimate knowledge of the Congo—its people, landscape, and culture—could write a novel with such confidence and authority. This is a lush novel, rich with tension and intricately woven, believable characters. Myers clearly loves the Congo—and you will love this book. I did!”

Carolyn Hart

Tamar Myers’ mesmerizing novel of mid-twentieth century Congo plumbs passion, despair, and courage. The Witch Doctor’s Wife will long linger in the hearts and minds of readers. Authentic. Powerful. Triumphant.

Editorial Reviews

Myers’ charming sense of humor lightens the darkness of her subject (murder, of course!).” — Rock Hill Herald, South Carolina

“Only an author with an intimate knowledge of the Congo—its people, landscape, and culture—could write a novel with such confidence and authority. This is a lush novel, rich with tension and intricately woven, believable characters. Myers clearly loves the Congo—and you will love this book. I did!” — Mary Alice Monroe, bestselling author of Last Light over Carolina

Tamar Myers’ mesmerizing novel of mid-twentieth century Congo plumbs passion, despair, and courage. The Witch Doctor’s Wife will long linger in the hearts and minds of readers. Authentic. Powerful. Triumphant. — Carolyn Hart, author of Dare to Die

Myers draws on her own experiences as the daughters of white missionaries living in the Belgian Congo for this dazzling novel full of authentic African lore....This marks a major breakthrough for Myers as she displays storytelling skills... — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Publisher

Myers’ charming sense of humor lightens the darkness of her subject (murder, of course!).

Rock Hill Herald

Only an author with an intimate knowledge of the Congo—its people, landscape, and culture—could write a novel with such confidence and authority. This is a lush novel, rich with tension and intricately woven, believable characters. Myers clearly loves the Congo—and you will love this book. I did!

Mary Alice Monroe

Tamar Myers’ mesmerizing novel of mid-twentieth century Congo plumbs passion, despair, and courage. The Witch Doctor’s Wife will long linger in the hearts and minds of readers. Authentic. Powerful. Triumphant.

Carolyn Hart

A tale of wildly clashing cultures in the Belgian Congo. American missionary Amanda Brown arrives in 1958, eager to save souls. Her plane crashes on arrival, but she survives and is rescued by a mysterious Nigerian. The small town of Belle Vue is the center of a diamond-mining region. Even the least significant Europeans live quite well, while the natives on the other side of the river struggle for existence. When the witch doctor, Their Death, finds his second wife's youngest child sucking on an enormous uncut diamond, his efforts to turn the stone into a better life for his family unleash a chain of disasters. His first wife, the clever Cripple, replaces the stone with glass; the white man approached by Their Death for help becomes embroiled in endless plots with his male lover and the local head of the mining consortium. Amanda hires Cripple to work with her surly housekeeper and becomes fond of the witch doctor's (first) wife, although neither fully understands the other's very different lifestyle. Amanda, who has made no friends among the Europeans, defends Cripple when she falsely confesses to murdering a white man. The author's personal experience as a child brought up by missionaries in the Congo lends authenticity to every word. A radical but welcome departure for Myers (As the World Churns, 2008, etc.). Fans of Alexander McCall Smith may well find Cripple as delightful as Precious Ramotswe.

Kirkus Reviews

Myers draws on her own experiences as the daughter of white missionaries living in the Belgian Congo for this dazzling novel full of authentic African lore. In 1958, Amanda Brown and her fellow passengers suffer only minor injuries when the plane bringing them to the diamond mining community of Belle Vue makes a crash landing. The 23-year-old South Carolina native, who's spent six months in Belgium studying French and the Congolese language of Tshiluba, has come to Belle Vue to run a missionary guesthouse, where she soon employs one of a local witch doctor's two wives, the delightful, no-nonsense Cripple. The discovery of a huge uncut diamond sets off a chain of unfortunate events leading to Cripple's being charged with murder. This marks a major breakthrough for Myers as she displays storytelling skills not recently seen in the claustrophobic confines of her Pennsylvania-Dutch (Batter Off Dead) and Den of Antiquity (Poison Ivory) mystery series. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly