White Mischief The Murder of Lord Erroll - A True Story of Aristocracy, Alcohol and Adultery

 

This true story was first published in 1982 and made into a movie in 1987. The story is about the unsolved murder of Lord Erroll in 1941 in Kenya. At the time, it was well known that the area of Happy Valley in Kenya was a most decadent place to spend time, one of lavish parties where usual societal limitations were flaunted. Essentially, it was a place of refuse for the ultra rich members of the British aristocracy who were often castoffs from the staid life expected of those living in the homeland. Alcohol and other drugs were the order of the day, and this type of lifestyle existed from the beginning of the 20th century until the murder of Lord Erroll and the start of WWII. 

The first part of the book was essentially a tale of the widespread debauchery, who was having sex with whom, who was divorcing whom, who was remarrying, who was getting drunker than others, who was using cocaine and morphine, etc. Josslyn Hay, the 22nd Earl of Erroll, was 39 years old at the time his murder, and he had been among the most outrageous of who were living their lives in Happy Valley. He was only interested in having sex with married women, and there were many who chose to share his bed with him. Diana Caldwell, a most beautiful woman, was married to Delves Broughton, an exceedingly wealthy man. This was the second marriage for both, and Diana was already known to being willing to sleep with lots of different men, both during her first marriage and after her divorce. Broughton seemed to be willing to tolerate her indiscretions, at least until she fell in love with the Earl, a most handsome and charismatic character.

To make a long and complex story shorter, Late one night, the Earl was shot in the head, and all evidence suggested in was Boughton that had done the deed. There was a trial, and the defendant's attorney, an expert in ballistics, convinced the jury that Boughton could not have pulled the trigger. (This really sounds like the OJ Simpson trial of that era.) No one else was ever charged with the crime. However, the murder and trial were sensational and were covered in worldwide news.

I ran across this book as I was searching for stories about East Africa. The murder and trial, as well as the hedonistic lifestyle in Happy Valley were all mentioned in at least three of the nonfiction books that I have already reviewed. I did not find this book to be particularly good. Rather, it read like a cheap soap opera, and then I began scanning pages rather than reading them carefully. I do not recommend it.

No Picnic on Mount Kenya

 No Picnic on Mount Kenya by Felice Benuzzi, was first published in English in 1946 and in Italian in 1947. This is a true adventure that is ranked as one history’s greatest real adventures, and it is listed in the Adventure Library. It is subtitled “The Story of Three POWs Escape to Adventure,” and “A Daring Escape, A Perilous Climb.” This book grabbed my interest from the very beginning.

 

This is a mountaineering story took place in 1943 in the unlikely location of a POW camp in Kenya. During World War II, the Italians were aligned with the Axis powers and had occupied Ethiopia in 1936 until they were defeated by the Allied forces in 1941. Many Italians were captured and the some were warehoused in Kenya. Benuzzi was one of the Italian captives and he described the mind-killing boredom of life in a POW camp, and while he was staring at Mt. Kenya which was sometimes visible from the camp, he came up with the idea of climbing the 17,000 foot mountain. However, he had no personal mountaineering experienced, was undernourished, and had no mountaineering equipment. Fearful of his dream being found out, he carefully chose two men who could help him achieve this goal and keep his secret. Preparations took months to find suitable climbing tools and to gather enough food to carry with them. It was not the author’s goal to actually leave the camp forever, but rather to climb the mountain and then sneak back into the camp.

 

The camp itself was not difficult to escape, and one of the chief deterrents to the prisoners was the African wildlife, especially the lions and rhinos who were notorious for attacking and killing humans. The man eating lions were especially known for such acts and it was reported that they killed hundreds of Indian laborers who had been imported to help Kenya build a railroad from Mombasa to Lake Victoria at the edge of Uganda. The land itself was a deterrent and then these three Italian men had no weapons other than the ice axes they fashioned from other tools to which they had access.

 

Benuzzi wrote a good story about the adventure itself, but also about the interactions between the three man team. They were nearly killed at many times during the trip from various hazards, and the mountain itself was particularly hazardous. They were very unprepared for all aspects of this adventure. By the time they got down the mountain after a successful climb, they were frozen and emaciated, but they were able to get safely back into the camp where they received minimal punishment from their captors.

 

The book concluded with an epilogue that gave the history of prior attempts to climb Mt. Kenya, the first successful one occurring in 1899. I thoroughly enjoyed this book which I stumbled upon while looking for more books about East Africa. It gets my strong recommendation.

 

 

Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass by Karen Blixen (pen name Isak Dinesen)

 Out of Africa was written by Karen Blixen, pen name Isak Dinesen, and it was originally published in 1937, by which time the author had already left the African continent. (It was made into a 1985 movie starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. The movie won seven Oscars including best picture.) This is an epic story of Blixen’s life in colonial Kenya. She wrote about the details of her social interactions with the Kiyuku people, the Masai, the Somalis, and others. Meanwhile, she dealt with the widelife, life as a coffee farmer, the harsh droughts and locusts swarms, and her eventual need to sell the farm and move back to her homeland of Denmark. She watched the enormous herds of animals become decimated by sportsmen and poachers, and she herself transformed from being a shooter to being a conservationist. Her incredible details of her social engagements really brings her life there into a rich focus.

 I once had an incredible professor, Dr. Desmond Bittinger, who was a contemporary of Blixen, although he was living in Nigeria during the 30s. His stories are incredibly consistent with Blixen’s writing. They had incredible adventures at a time when there were few white men about. Although it was not an intended focus of the book, one can see the problematic results of England’s colonial rule.

 

This book is often published with Blixen’s book Shadows on the Grass. This book is essentially a sequel to Out of Africa and it was written not long before her death in 1962. She had obviously loved her time in Africa and she regretted having to leave, but her stories in this second book described how her thoughts and feelings about her time there had matured.

 

As I continue my effort to read as much about Africa as I can before my planned trip there in 9/25, I certainly agree that this book belonged on my reading list. Now, 40 years later, I’ll have to find the movie of which I have many clear memories of having seen it in 1985, which was not so long after my first trip to that continent.

 

I chose to consume these two books in audioformat. It was a 17-hour effort, and I judge that time to have been very well spent.

Love, Life, and Elephants, An African Love Story

 Now, I’ve really gone off our usual path of thrillers and murder mysteries. Although there are lots of deaths in this story, that is hardly the main theme of the book, but I’ll briefly mention some of those untimely deaths in this review. Over the course of my life, I’ve really read few love stories, but this is one of those, a love story about East Africa, especially Kenya. The book is also the man that the author loved, David Seldrick, and the wild animals, she and David loved. Love, Life, and Elephants, An African Love Story by Dame Daphne Seldrick is also her autobiography. She migrated from South Africa to Kenya, particularly the spectacular Tsavo National Park which she and David Seldrick established. Her husband essentially worked as a game warden who also worked to control the poachers who were decimating the African animals, mostly the elephants and rhinos. 

She raised two children in the game park and David was beloved by many including the Masai and Kikuyu, as well as the many dignitaries and travelers who learned of the Seldrick’s conservation efforts. The book is also a story of the history of Kenya from the development of the railroad to Uganda at the turn of the 20^th century. It was the process of building the railroad that hundreds of works were caught and eaten by lions. When one unusually successful maneater were finally hunted and killed, it measured 9 ½ feet in length. As the park was developed for tourism, it was also being raided for the rhino horns and elephant tusks. The slaughter of those animals severely impacted the size of the herds of the animals, and the Seldricks worked to create an orphanage to help save those babies that were left behind. They created an orphanage in Nairobi which is now a thriving operation, and I plan to visit it in the very near future.

 

I must confess that since my first visit to Africa at the age of 21, I too have had a love for East Africa. My visit to Tanzania and the Ngorongoro Crater coincided with the moment that I declared my intention to go to medical school. The travel and that decision were linked, and now I get to go back again. Although an unusual book by the standard of this book blog, I am pretty sure you’ll love this story.

Happy Valley, The Story of the English in Kenya

 Happy Valley, The Story of the English in Kenya by Nicholas Best is the first book in my admitted walkabout from the usual thriller/murder/mystery/espionage books that we usually review. I may be off the usual reporting for much of the time in the next few months as I prepare for a trip to Africa.

 

Nicholas Best, who was born in Kenya in 1948, provided a nonfiction account of the history of East Africa, focusing primarily on the English who settled in Kenya. He noted that Vasco De Gama, the Portuguese sailor who was the first to round Cape of Good Hope and continue into the Indian Ocean, landed in Mombasa in 1498. The coastal area of East Africa became one with significant sea traffic as the result of trade routes and the slave trade. The Englishman Joseph Thomson, an explorer, is known to have gotten to Lake Victoria in 1882 after crossing the dangerous Masai territory. Best wrote about the development of English society in Kenya, and his focus was primarily on the building of a railway from Mombasa to Uganda, the mysterious death of Lord Erroll, and the Mau Mau revolution in the 1950s. He continued to the end of the colonial era and the temporary chaos that ensued until the country became a stable and productive economy.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this well-written history. It was a good place to start my study of the history of that part of the world.

The Bright Freight of Memory

 The Bright Freight of Memory is Greg Fields’ fourth novel, but the first one reviewed in this blog. Unlike most of the books that are reviewed at Men Reading Books, this is not a murder mystery. There are some deaths in the story, but that’s not what carried the plot. Rather, the story is primarily about two fatherless boys growing up in poverty who had rather helpless mothers that could not meet the needs of their sons. Friends during their early years, Matthew Cooney and Donal Mannion took different paths while not living far from their original neighborhoods. Alcoholism was a part of their generational stories. There is a supporting cast of characters that help flush out their stories of never being able to rise to a level of feeling meaning in their lives or meaningful and lasting relationships.

The quality of the writing far exceeds the books that are often reviewed in the blog. Fields primary and secondary characters grabbed my attention. I give this book a 5/5 rating – it is worth your time to enjoy the prose of Greg Fields. If it was not for another reading project on my plate, I would surely jump right into one of Fields’ earlier novels.

A Hired Kill by Steven Konkoly

Garrett Mann has assembled a nearly off-the-books team of FBI experts along with some Mexican law enforcement to do a deep dive into the drug and human trafficking trade across the southern US border. They answer only to an Assistant Director of the FBI who runs interference for the team any time someone gets a whiff of their activities.

They’ve learned about an underground training facility in the New Mexico desert (originally built by the CIA for training purposes). The raid results in the death of dozens of cartel types who’ve been training Mexican natives as sleeper agents on how to blend in. A lone survivor tells them of a coming action in the Sacramento area.

Mann takes his team to Sacramento. Reinforced by local and state law enforcement, they surround a mansion in a gated big-bucks community. While the home is empty, it’s not a walk in the park. The property is heavily mined. The house is wired to its foundation with explosives. All of it triggered remotely once agents are on the property and inside the house. Someone knew they were coming and were watching for the perfect time to detonate. Dozens upon dozens of law enforcement agents were killed.

The hunt for the cartel leaders behind all this is now massive. California, Sacramento, and the FBI are frothing at the bit to administer some serious revenge. It’s up to Mann to keep all in line to track down who is responsible and, importantly, the obvious presence of leaks. some to the highest levels of federal law enforcement.

The key to finding the bad guys lies deep within the mind of the survivor who is doing his best to work out a deal to save his own skin despite his own pro-cartel history.

Now this is what we at MRB live for. Slam bang, gnashing of teeth, speed of light plotting and action. Believable (somewhat) characters with righteous motivation. Just keep a notepad handy to keep track of all the acronyms and initialisms tossed around. Konkoly has a long history of writing mysteries and thrillers. Two earlier titles were favorably reviewed by MRB (by moi). Wouldn’t be a stretch to want to expand into his other titles. One never knows. 

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance reader copy.

Available May 27. 2025

ECD

Boney Creek by Paula Gleeson

Tom and Addie lived a good like in the city. Good jobs, recently wed, considering children. While they slept, they were victims of a break-in and assault. The physical and emotional effects were so severe that they decided to up and leave their city life for the safety of a backwater town far in the country. Boney Creek.

They purchase a little general store/post office and set up a new life. Boney Creek, like many small towns, were wary of outsiders. Tom tries to get the store, homestead, and the basics of a life reborn. Addie had an entry job at a big city newspaper and yearned to become an investigative reporter. Someone with her curiosity and general nosiness might not be well received.

She wasn’t. Stuck her nose into too many people’s business.

Even for a small town, seven unexplained deaths seem unusual. Not to mention that Boney Creek has a history based on a series of killings decades ago. Rumor was it was a serial killer. Or a drifter on a spree. But no one was ever caught, and the town suffered a slow demise as a result. Addie wonders if history is repeating itself. Or is there a copycat. Can't just be coincidence.

Addie is sure the town needs to know the truth so it can heal. Many locals, however, think just let bygones be bygones. She digs deeper, championing herself as some nose to the grindstone reporter who’s sniffed out a major story and the accompanying glory. All she does is offend most of the town.

Then she learns that Boney Creek wasn’t just picked at random. Tom had a reason for steering Addie to move when they decided to leave the city.

This was kind of interesting. Normally the hell-bent reporter has lots of street cred and contacts in law enforcement and sometimes the underworld. Not Addie. Her only experience was in writing fluff pieces and never got her shot anywhere close to the big time. Gleeson lets us peek over Addie’s shoulder while she trips up (repeatedly) in her obsession to score the ‘big story’.

Give this one shot. As a story about the press, it’s nowhere near the level of the likes of RG Belsky. But it’s still worth a shot. Well presented. Believable characters. Cleverly  plotted.

Thanks to the good folks at NetGalley for the advance reader copy.

Available June 3, 2025

The Alpha Particle by TJ Hawkins

Tom Rivers is your basic British architect until he has a serious accident. When he awakens, he finds his life wasn’t as expected. His skills stretch well beyond that of an architect. Turns out his younger days were spent is training for the highest level of security and espionage. Then his handlers ‘put him to sleep’ to hide his skills only to be activated (awakened) in the event of a potentially catastrophic emergency. Oh, and his wife Luna is a similarly trained sleeper agent.

Russia has a new class of long-range missile capable of hitting targets without warning. If that’s not bad enough, a middle east terrorist, Baqri, has managed to obtain a rare element and gets it weaponized. The Brits and the US get word that Baqri is working to put this rare element on one of those Russian missiles to fire on the US (seems Baqri’s issues with the US aren’t political or ideological. In an earlier life, Tom killed Baqri’s brother. His motivation in pure revenge against both Tom, his wife, and the US in general). Baqri is backed by a mysterious cabal of disaffected billionaires who think they know what’s best for the world – call them The Collective (blood kin to SMERSH of SPECTRE, et al.?).

To get the attention of the US leadership, Baqri fires a missile on a mid-size city in Ohio killing thousands. This mobilizes the US medical community to determine and treat the killing element. The security community is out in force to find the number of missiles Baqri has access to and when/where he might strike again. The sharp end of the US’s spear is Tom and wife Luna.

This is an engaging if (in my opinion) outlandish scheme involving super spies, obsessed lunatic middle easterner, and the author’s version of the Bilderberg Group. While the writing style is polished, the story just seemed to me to be too much, too unbelievable, and entirely unrealistic. One of the things that make thrillers so interesting is the possibility that the story might happen. I had a hard time believing that The Collective exists, that husband/wife sleeper agents are out there unaware of their past only to be awakened to save the world, that such weapons (missiles and biochemical) can be adapted for mass murder and no one is aware.

If you like the impossible, check this out. I’ll just sit idly by in blissful ignorance.

ECD