The second book in the Vera and Tolliver series, The Idol of Mombasa finds the invasive and obtrusive British tangled in an uneasy peace with the Sultan of Zanzibar. Much of this new mystery in Alfieri’s East Africa series concerns the slave trade.

The British have outlawed it, but, well, it’s all a matter of who you know and who you owe, isn’t it? This slippery morality infuriates Vera Tolliver, a Scottish missionary’s daughter and the bride of an English police officer whose job it is to enforce the law … after he figures out what it is. The murder of a runaway slave only increases the complications, especially when a longtime friend of Vera’s is the likeliest suspect.

Meanwhile both the British government and the Sultanate sail above it all, as though they have nothing to do with it, but Vera and Tolliver know their fingers are knotted into this tangle’s every strand. A beautifully detailed and engaging follow up to Strange Gods, Annamaria Alfieri’s The Idol of Mombasa continues the stories of Vera and Justin Tolliver, as they face yet another mystery that grows more complicated the closer you look.

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