Fiction
All Come to Dust
by Bryony Rheam
Description
All Come to Dust is set in present day Zimbabwe, a time of economic difficulty, corruption, poverty, the legacy of colonialism and the resilience and humour of its people, but it also looks back to the time just before the creation of the state of Zimbabwe in 1980.
Marcia Pullman has been found dead at home in the leafy suburbs of Bulawayo. Chief Inspector Edmund Dube is onto the case at once, but it becomes increasingly clear that there are those, including the dead woman’s husband, who do not want him asking questions.
The case drags Edmund back into his childhood to when his mother's employers disappeared one day and were never heard from again, an incident that has shadowed his life.
As his investigation into the death progresses, Edmund realises the two mysteries are inextricably linked and that unravelling the past is a dangerous undertaking threatening his very sense of self.
More Information
Rights Information
Rights are available in English outside of Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, and in all languages elsewhere.
Marketing Information
The author's debut novel sold well in Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, and it has attracted attention in the Arab world where Bryony was a guest of honour at last year's Cairo Interrnational Book Fair.
Endorsements
‘All Come to Dust is an intriguing, twisting murder mystery, a witty combination of old-fashioned detective story and keenly-observed portrait of life in suburban Bulawayo.
In DCI Edmund Dube, Bryony Rheam has created a fictional detective as memorable as Hercule Poirot.’ – Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train
‘The beauty of All Come to Dust is its refusal to be called one thing. It’s complicated, just like life. We follow flawed, authentic characters as they navigate their changing world and acknowledge that the past, buried or not, always nips on the present’s heels.’ – Yejide Kilanko, author of Daughters Who Walk This Path
Praise for Bryony Rheam's This September Sun:
Elegantly written, funny and poignant, this is a wonderful first novel from a writer of great promise. A true original - Caroline Gilfillan
Bryony Rheam takes a bold but necessary step toward exorcising the ghost of Rhodesia from the house of Zimbabwean letters - James Graham, Warwick Review
‘Rheam’s Africa is not the Africa of the media – that is a continent reduced to nothing more than poverty and strife, it is a place where real people live with everyday worries and regular problems, and the novel strikes an optimistic tone missing in most African literature.’ – Tendai Huchu, author of The Hairdresser of Harare and The Maestro, The Magistrate and The Mathematician.
Tendai Huchu
Reviews
Bryony Rheam’s All Come to Dust reviewed in The Financial Gazette
from: https://www.fingaz.co.zw/murder-mystery-in-bulawayo/
Reviewed by Diana Rodrigues
Crime fiction is globally one of the biggest selling literary genres, and this bodes well for Bryony Rheam’s latest novel, All Come to Dust. In this gripping whodunnit, we can confront our darkest fears from the safety of an armchair, puzzle about several dark and complex characters and their unspeakable activities, and sift through the clues and red herrings in a murder mystery set in the suburbs of Bulawayo.
Rheam writes with wit and humour, but at times the plot becomes so dark as to make the reader distinctly uncomfortable. A shining light amidst the uncertainty is the character of Detective Chief Inspector Edmund Dube. Although policing in Zimbabwe didn’t conform to the expectations and images he had imagined as a school boy, he remains dedicated to his career, and to ‘keeping the people of Bulawayo safe and sound’. Most of his time, however, is taken up by the paper work of filling in charge sheets relating to ‘speeding offences or drunken driving’. All this changes when DCI Edmund Dube is called to reception, where the duty officer informs him that ‘an ikhiwa woman …. I mean a white lady’, had been stabbed to death in her bed in nearby Suburbs.
From here the narrative takes off at breakneck speed. DCI Dube, in search of transport to the crime scene, commandeers an elderly fawn-coloured Renault 4 from Craig Martin, a shabby forty-something individual with a mullet hair style. Reluctantly Craig drives the inspector to a house in Suburbs, where business woman Marcia Pullman lies dead on her bed, a silver paper knife sticking out of her chest.
A raft of interesting characters are introduced, many possibly having a motive to murder Marcia, and there are many red herrings designed to keep the reader guessing. Unexpectedly, Craig Martin develops a friendship with DCI Dube. Providing transport for the detective in his trusty R4, he also agrees to shadow suspects engaged in nefarious activities in the sanitary lane, where he narrowly escapes death.
DCI Dube is very much a loner, and gets little support from his fellow officers, who seem on occasion to treat him as a joke. This doesn’t deter him from his duty, and he vows to discover Marcia’s killer, although his superior takes him off the case twice. After interviewing everyone who has been in contact with Marcia, he lies sleepless in bed, going over every possibility and considering every suspect.
All Come to Dust is a clever mystery novel, filled with surprise reveals and unexpected events, none more surprising than the final denouement.
The best detective novels are page turners, with the reader drawn into a relationship with all the characters. In All Come to Dust, DCI Edmund Dube, for all his failings, is someone we admire and feel close to. If Rheam continues the series, and allows him to pursue his career, DCI Dube could become one of crime fiction’s detective greats.
Author Biography
Bryony Rheam is a Zimbabwean who lives in the second city ofBulawayo with her partner and two daughters.
She has had short stories published in many anthologies and her first novel This September Sun won critical acclaim and topped theUK Amazon chart. It was chosen as the Best First Book at theZimbabwe Book Publishers Association Awards and selected as a set text for 'A' level Literature in English in Zimbabwe.
Bryony was one of the five Africans chosen for a Morland scholarship in 2018. An Agatha Christie enthusiast, she is awinner of the international Write Your Own Christie competition.
She has participated in many literary events, including the Ake Arts and Book Festival in Nigeria, Africa Utopia in London and the Cairo International Book Fair.
Copyright Information
Copyright Bryony Rheam 2020
amaBooks Publishers
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher amaBooks
- Publication Date November 2020
- Orginal LanguageEnglish
- ISBN/Identifier 9781779060808 / 1779060808
- Publication Country or regionZimbabwe
- FormatPaperback
- Primary Price 15 USD
- Pages474
- ReadershipGeneral
- Publish StatusPublished
- Original Language TitleEnglish
- EditionFirst
- Copyright Year2020
- Page sizeA5 (210*148) mm
- IllustrationNone
- Biblio NotesA Zimbabwean crime novel in the style of Agatha Christie
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