Hell's Gate

It must have been someone's idea of a joke. Too many offended egos back at headquarters, too many influential people unhappy with him in Nairobi. And yet, with his record, almost impossible to dismiss. So where had they sent Mollel? Straight to Hell. When Mollel, a former Maasai warrior turned detective, ends up in a small, fly-blown town on the edge of a national park, it looks as if his career has taken a nose-dive. His colleagues are a close-knit group and they have not taken kindly to a stranger in their midst. Mollel suspects they are guilty of the extortion and bribery that plague the force, but when the body of a flower worker turns up in the local lake, he wonders if they might be involved in something more disturbing... For all is not as it seems in Hell's Gate. Amid rumours of a local death squad, disappearances and blackmail, Mollel is forced not only to confront his Maasai heritage, but also to ask himself where justice truly lies. In upholding the law, is he doing what is right? '[Crompton] has done something near-miraculous and made the figure of the incorruptible loner-detective fresh again' Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph 'Crompton does it again... a beguiling blend of moroseness, honesty, confusion and astute wisdom' Marcel Berlins, The Times 'Hell's Gate is the second of [Crompton's] novels set in Kenya, and is every bit as good as The Honey Guide . . . Crompton writes with ease about traditional customs and the impact on Kenya of globalisation, creating a vivid portrait of a country struggling to come to terms with modernity' Joan Smith, Sunday Times