One Blood
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
1960, and Sister Conchita, the young nun with a flair for detection, has been forced to leave her beloved Malaita and assume reluctant command of a run-down mission in the lush, primitive Western District of the Solomon Islands.The group of three elderly sisters currently there are rumoured to have 'gone native' and Conchita tries to grapple with these eccentric, tough-mind insurgents and the secrets they are keeping when an American tourist is murdered in their mission church but perplexingly, the colonial authorities want nothing to do with this bizarre crime.
Help is at hand for Sister Conchita in the shape of her friend Sergeant Ben Kella, the local police officer but also the aofia, the traditional law-bringer of the islands. Together, the idealistic young nun and practical witch doctor set out to solve the mystery. In the process they discover links to a local independence organisation, a powerful international logging company, and, most puzzling of all, to John F. Kennedy, a former wartime US naval officer in the area but now, thousands of miles away, about to become the 35th president of the USA.
Praise for Devil-Devil:
The mystery takes a back seat to [Kent's] knowledge of the exotic location and the combustible chemistry of his protaganists (the oddest couple since The African Queen), which add immensely to his story's charm. Kirkus Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kent's second mystery set in the Solomon Islands in 1960 (after 2011's Devil-Devil) will appeal to history buffs and those fond of exotic locales. During the open day held by the Marakosi Mission for villagers from the surrounding islands, Sister Conchita encounters a frightened American tourist, Ed Blamire, who has sought refuge in the mission church. Soon afterward, Blamire's body turns up on a ceremonial bonfire that's been prematurely set ablaze. A distraught Conchita vows to discover the cause of his death. Meanwhile, police sergeant Ben Kella investigates sabotage at a logging operation near where then naval lieutenant John Kennedy spent the night after the sinking of PT109 in 1943. Only after Conchita and Kella survive separate attempts on their lives do they suspect their cases are linked through the sins of the present and not-so-distant past. The Solomons, then a British protectorate, come fully alive in this absorbing adventure.
