While Zimbabwean City of Kings trilogy interrogates Bulawayo’s history, author CM Elliot and her Detective Sibanda detective series present Bulawayo and its surrounds in its present state. Using the crime fiction genre, CM Elliot takes us into the heart of Matabeleland terrain. She uses her dashing protagonist, Detective Sibanda, who returns in this fourth installment of the series to solve another mystery murder in the backwaters of Gubu. Riding on Miss Daisy, his rustic Land Rover which has seen better days, we veer between the hustle and bustle of urban life to the sprawling untamed bushveld. Readers will be delighted to reconnect with Berry Barton, his love interest and his sidekick, the rotund Sergeant Ncube and his coterie of resourceful wives. The story unfolds in the heart of Matabeleland, whose history comes alive through a series of journal entries that lay buried in an attic.  CM Elliot stirs up a riveting tale with ingredients ranging from the illicit diamond trade to corrupt politicians and rogue traders. The crime thriller is oiled with her razor-sharp wit and dramatic chase sequences which read like a Hollywood action blockbuster. Sibanda and the Night Adder is a well-plotted, fast-paced, crime thriller, with sharper twists and turns than the Zambezi River. The suspense and intrigue will have you turning pages till the very end. 

Scotty Elliot, as she is affectionately known, was born in England and emigrated to Australia. She completed an Honors degree in French Studies at the University of Western Australia. She moved to Zimbabwe in 1977 at the height of the civil war. Together with her husband, Alan, they pioneered a popular safari business, Touch the Wild Safaris, based in and around Hwange National Park. She lived in an assortment of tents, treehouses and bush dwellings, dodging a hodgepodge of charging elephants, rhino, buffalo and a rather angry spitting cobra, before moving to Bulawayo and taking up writing in 2010, and has contributed to ZW Literature in introducing this genre called Afronoir.

Sibanda and the Night Adder is the fourth in this captivating crime fiction series. CM Elliot made her debut with Sibanda and the Rainbird (2013) followed by Death’s Head Moth (2015) and Sibanda and the Black Sparrow Hawk (2017). The trilogy was published by Jacana Media in South Africa, Constable & Co UK and Hachette Australia and New Zealand. The series has since been optioned for film and we are keenly looking forward to seeing the film adaptation. Sibanda and the Night Adder is published by @HeartCarnelian. For more information about her books, you can visit her website. You can follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @scotty6677.

Title: Sibanda and the Rainbird

Series: #1 in the Detective Sibanda series

Author: CM Elliot

Publisher: Constable

ISBN: 978-1472130495

Title: Sibanda and Death’s Head Moth

Series: #2 in the Detective Sibanda series

Author: CM Elliot

Publisher: Constable

ISBN: 978-1472130525

Title: Sibanda and the Black Sparrow Hawk

Series: #3 in the Detective Sibanda series

Author: CM Elliot

Publisher: Constable

ISBN: 978-1472130549

Title: Sibanda and the Night Adder

Series: #4 in the Detective Sibanda series

Author: CM Elliot

Publisher: Carnelian Heart Publishing Ltd

ISBN: 978-1914287305

#ZimbabweLitMonth is curated by novelist Sue Nyathi. She is a published Zimbabwean author of four fiction titles: The Polygamist (2012), The Gold Diggers (2018), A Family Affair (2020), and An Angel’s Demise (2022). She also edited a nonfiction anthology titled When Secrets Become Stories, Women Speak Out (2021). You can visit her website here and follow her on Twitter at @SueNyathi