The Red Die

Author(s): Alex MacBeth

Location(s): Mozambique

Genre(s): Crime, Fiction

Era(s): 2014

The body of a white man in a suit washes into the bay of the rural African district of Mossuril, a place normally so quiet for law enforcement a whole day can pass without a misdemeanour occurring. Comandante Felisberto and Lieutenant Samora, the district’s only two senior officers, have no clues to follow other than a red die and a business card found in the victim’s pocket.

The officers soon uncover a trail leading up to the highest echelons of power in their country. The deeper the policemen dig, the more their actions return to haunt them: the district’s police headquarters are blown up, the officers are ambushed by mercenaries and a key witness is killed while Felisberto is interrogating her. Hunted by snipers and past skeletons, Commander Felisberto is forced to flee.

Felisberto is a war veteran. He hates anything to do with phones, computers or technology. Samora is the opposite and thinks he could create an app for solving crimes. Both hope Frangopelo, the new minister for oil and gas, is not involved in their new case.

When Tomlinson – a British zoologist – arrives at his new job at an African nature reserve, he finds a handful of problems but few animals. Podolski meanwhile has pinned his hopes on the Eldorado Account, Mason & Stock’s biggest investment in the company’s African portfolio. But can he count on The Source, a compromised Foreign Office agent?

Or will he have to turn to Bizu The Fixer, a suave but vicious Rwandan assassin? Or Colonel Li, “who has a criminal record so long it could carpet the Great Wall of China.” Can Felisberto and his “motley crew of rural investigators” solve the case and survive?

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