Evocative and gripping murder mystery in Marrakesh
A DEATH IN THE MEDINA JAMES VON LEYDEN Constable Review: Orielle Berry
IT’S the hottest month of the year and also the hottest in memory. August in Marrakesh – few tourists remain – and those who do swelter in the simmering heat. It’s Ramadaan and the devout are fasting... and suffering from an almost tangibly overpowering claustrophobia as the heat beats down on them.
Among the few foreigners left are a riad (guest house) owner, her French boyfriend and a young English woman whose bag has been stolen after a hen weekend. At the local police “commissariat”, detective Karim Belkacem, 24, struggles to keep up the traditional month-long fast while holding down two jobs to pay for his sister’s wedding.
Author James von Leyden certainly creates a heady, sultry and somewhat threatening atmosphere. It’s so evocative you can just about smell the rising heat off littered pavements, contrasted with the waft of mint tea, and spice from the narrow, twisting alleys.
Danger lurks when news spreads that a young Moroccan woman student has been found murdered and her body dumped in a handcart. The news comes on the same day that a British tourist comes to report the theft of her bag.
Are they at all connected and who is involved?
Investigating first officially, then unofficially after he’s sidelined, Karim uncovers a world of shadowy predators and a host of ancient secrets hidden behind the high walls of the medina.
As the book’s bio tells us, the British Von Leyden first visited Morocco in 1985, which led to a life-long love affair with the country. He divides his time between his home country and Morocco and informs readers that it took a long time to write the book, which is evident from the fabulous descriptions of the city and the way he slings about Arabic phrases.
In writing the book, Von Leyden places Karim as your typical anti-hero. We see a lot of the city through his eyes and are made privy as much to the frustrating murder investigation (which seems more often than not to be put up against a brick wall), as to his family life and the concomitant pressures made on him.
His second job is as a night guard at a building site, where he battles to sleep in an airless guard’s hut.
Von Leyden builds up his other characters fully too – from the devious and misguided Kay, who runs the riad, to her rather reluctant boyfriend Sebastien, who’s the project manager of an ambitious new building project.
They are pitted against the Moroccans – some of whom struggle with centuries’ old traditional family values and others who try to break free – and Von Leyden creates a glorious polyglot of cultures amid his portrayal of this complex and, at the same time, tempting city of both ancient and modern.
The book is neatly constructed. It starts at the beginning of Ramadaan and ends at the same time as the month-long fast, and in between the heat rises as the action gets hotter.
Von Leyden, like all good thriller writers, points fingers at a host of suspects that’ll get you wondering and builds up to the finale in a fabulous crescendo.
I read the book – all 386 pages of it – in one long sitting with the pages turning furiously. It’s not only a thriller but a sensationally good insider guide to Marrakesh. It also could not be more on point with the never-ending focus on gender abuse.