Detective Sibanda

1 primary work • 4 total works

Sibanda and the Night Adder

by C M Elliott

Published 12 April 2023

Sibanda and the rainbird

by C M Elliott

Published 13 September 2013

Sibanda and the rainbird is a crime novel based in the African bush, and introduces Detective Inspector Jabulani Sibanda, a highly-knowledgeable, cultured, bush-savvy policeman in contemporary Africa, stationed at a large village on the borders of the National Park. The story opens with the discovery of a gruesomely vulture-mutilated corpse in the Park near Thunduluka Lodge. Sibanda comes to the conclusion that the victim has been murdered for body parts. Clues include: tyre tracks, a knife inscribed with the letter 'B', and a sliver of blue metallic car paint, all of which lead Sibanda on several fraught journeys in search of the distinctive vehicle. With Sibanda are his sidekicks: Sergeant Ncube - an overweight, digestively challenged, severally married angler and mechanical genius; and Miss Daisy - an ancient, truculent and eccentric Land Rover that is the bane of Sibanda's life and the love of Ncube's. But the Bush, Detective Sibanda's passion for it and encyclopaedic knowledge of it are characters as much as the comic Ncube and his loveable Miss Daisy.
This is a gentle tale, with brush strokes of violence that touches on several themes and encompasses history, politics, brutality in war and marriage, betrayal and greed.

Sibanda and the Black Sparrow Hawk

by C M Elliott

Published 21 January 2021

'Fans of Alexander McCall Smith will love Scotty Elliott's Sibanda series' Sunday Times (SA)

When a skinned body is discovered on the side of the railway line deep in the Matabele bush, Detective Inspector Jabulani Sibanda, along with his sidekicks, Sergeant Ncube and the troublesome Land Rover, Miss Daisy, is back on the trail of a murderer. As more girls go missing and more bones are discovered, Sibanda realises they are dealing with the signature of a vicious serial killer who chooses the train as his killing field.

Suspects abound, and the trio pursues the leads relentlessly, but the warped psychopath is elusive. Has Sibanda met his match? To complicate matters, his unrequited love interest, Berry Barton, is back on his radar, Gubu police station politics are as partisan as ever and Sgt Ncube, in an attempt to equal the brilliance of his boss, has discovered the wonders of the Oxford English Dictionary, to hilarious results.

With winter tightening its grip, and drought and hardship threatening the population, Sibanda uses a risky strategy to trap his nemesis. Can he pull it off?

Praise for C. M. Elliott:

'Her plot keeps readers guessing right to the end, when the monster meets a truly satisfying fate . . . Elliott's skill as a writer lies in her ability to create and flesh out characters that are so lifelike, they thrum in your head for days after finishing her books' Business Live

'Will have you hooked' The Gremlin

'C.M. Elliott has created a lively cast of characters and an intricate, clever plot' Margaret von Klemperer, The Witness

'A thrilling detective yarn and a finely-drawn picture of the counterpoint between the gentle music of the bush and the harsher notes of poachers' deadly gunfire' The Citizen

Sibanda and the Death's Head Moth

by C M Elliott

Published 2 April 2020

'Fans of Alexander McCall Smith will love Scotty Elliott's Sibanda series' Sunday Times (SA)

Detective Sibanda and Sergeant Ncube are back!

Two bodies are discovered near Gubu, one burning at the base of a tree struck by lightning and, on the banks of the Zambezi, a second killing which threatens to tear Detective Sibanda's life apart. The victims are not connected as one is a foreign wildlife researcher and the other a local driver, but Sibanda's intuition tells him the murders are linked. The only clues are a fragment of material found in the brain of one victim, a puncture wound in the thigh of the other, and a diary full of coded names.

As the men investigate further, they find links to an ivory smuggling gang and in their pursuit of the killer, Sibanda and Ncube not only have to cope with their temperamental Landrover, their chief inspector's lack of cooperation, but a rough and remote landscape full of wild and dangerous adventure.

Praise for C. M. Elliott:

"C.M. Elliott has created a lively cast of characters and an intricate, clever plot..." - Margaret von Klemperer, The Witness

"A thrilling detective yarn and a finely-drawn picture of the counterpoint between the gentle music of the bush and the harsher notes of poachers' deadly gunfire - The Citizen