Talking Location With authors Alison Belsham and Nick Higgins – Kabul/Afghanistan

31st March 2022

#TalkingLocationWith… Alison Belsham and Nick Higgins – Kabul/Afghanistan

 Alison Belsham and Nick Higgins are the authors of Death in Kabul, a mystery thriller set in Kabul in 2003.

When the body of a British serviceman is discovered in the city’s infamous tank graveyard, the Kabul Police reach out for support in their investigation. Alasdair ‘Mac’ MacKenzie, formerly of the Metropolitan Police, is seconded to the team.

Baz Khan, an Afghan-American investigative journalist, is in Kabul researching a story. Precious antiquities, priceless artefacts of the country’s rich history, are disappearing amid the chaos, never to be seen again. Baz is determined to uncover whoever is spiriting them away, to prevent her war-torn country being further denuded for profit. And she has a lead…

The soldier’s death was no accident. Why was he so far from the British base in the middle of the night? And alone? As Baz and Mac investigate, they quickly realise they have each stumbled on something far bigger than they reckoned with, and are tossed into the Kabul underworld, where violence and corruption rule.

10% of the author royalties will be donated to UK-based charity AfghanAid which provides emergency assistance and support to families in Afghanistan.

They say write what you know, don’t they? So when I came up with the idea to write a murder mystery set in Kabul, I was flying in the face of all the perceived wisdom. No, I’ve never been to Kabul and, although when I started to write Death in Kabul the Americans were still out there, more recent devastating events in Afghanistan mean that I probably won’t ever get the chance to go there. However, it wasn’t really such a mad idea – my brother, Nick Higgins, had lived in Afghanistan for four years during the early 2000s and bringing him on board as my co-author ensured an authentic sense of place could be achieved – we wrote what he knew!

Here are some of the key locations that feature in the book, as photographed by Nick while he was there.

Kabul and TV Hill 

Kabul is a city of five million, circled by mountains and peppered by hills. This picture shows TV Hill, so-called for the television transmitters at the top, taken from the top of Swimming Pool Hill, so-called for the swimming pool at the top. (Afghan place names are very much a case of ‘it says on the tin’, but I always wonder what these hills were called before the arrival of television and swimming pools!) As the city grows, it’s spreading up the slopes, but it’s not without danger – back then it was reputed to be the most mined stretch of land in Afghanistan.

Darul Aman Palace 

In the south west of the city, the Darul Aman Palace sat like a resentful ghost of Afghanistan’s imperial past. But it’s not an ancient ruin – it was built in the 1920s by Amanullah Khan, Emir from 1919 to 1926. Trashed in the civil war of 1990s, it was renovated in time for the 100^th anniversary of Afghan Independence in 2019 – and now it watches as another chapter in the country’s turbulent history unfolds. Sitting opposite the palace, the National Museum of Afghanistan is a key location in Death in Kabul.

Isterlif 

As our hero Mac MacKenzie investigates the murder of a British soldier, the trail takes him to the picturesque village of Isterlif, famed for its gloriously colourful pottery. Favoured by Kabulis for a day out in the country, even here it’s hard to get away from reminders of past wars – the picture shows a Soviet tank in an old Taliban position, abandoned during their fight against the Northern Alliance.

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Minaret of Jam 

The chase heats up and leads Mac and his team into the hills of Shahrak. Here, on the banks of the Hari River, the Minaret of Jam towers more than 60 metres over the desolate landscape. It’s celebrated for its intricate brickwork and stucco, and its beautiful glazed tiles, decorated with the kufic and naskhi script. Built in 1190 at the site of the ancient Ghurid Dynasty’s capital, it is all that remains of the lost city of Turquoise Mountain. Today, it’s a World Heritage Site and has sadly been added to the World Heritage in Danger list as earthquakes, flooding, looting and the Taliban threaten to topple it.

Alison Belsham / Nick Higgins

You can follow Alison and Nick on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram:

Twitter: @AlisonBelsham @ANHigginswriter

Facebook: @AlisonBelshamWriter @nick.higgins Instagram: @alisonbelsham

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