James Fox (1) (1945–)

Deeply engrossing book that unravels a notorious murder, that of Josslyn Hay, Earl of Errol. In order to unravel the mystery, Fox and his deceased colleague Cyril Connolly do a masterful job of delving deep into the corrupt society of the "Happy Valley" of 1920s-1940s Kenya, and the odd and strange personalities that existed there. They also go through the evidence quite thoroughly, and track down surviving witnesses and participants (this was done in the 1960s, when it was still possible). The result is quite logical; the cops got the right man, but didn't have the full evidence to convict. Fox and Connolly, in my mind, did.… (meer)

Considering this book solves a long-standing and famous murder mystery, I find it perplexing that the ending doesn't come to more of a crescendo. Somehow it felt a bit of a let down and I don't know why. But I found it an interesting read and quite worthwhile.

While there is a map included it doesn't specifically show where the principal events occurred; I'd love a map that showed the house at Karen, the Muthaiga Club, the accident site, etc. That's a missed opportunity.

I was not happy with the Kindle formatting. The quotations were not distinctly set apart from the author's text and frequently what should have been commas came through as periods. These caused incoherence in the text and should be fixed.

I was happy to find photographs at the end and wish there had been links to them throughout the account. Nonfiction books need to make better use of electronic formats!… (meer)