Bait [Hardcover]

Nick Brownlee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 7, 2009

Ex-Scotland Yard cop Jake Moore’s career was cut short by a bullet; ten years later, he runs a game fishing business that is about to go broke. But old habits die hard, and when cerebral Mombasa detective Daniel Jouma—seemingly the only good policeman in a city where corruption is king—asks for his help in solving a baffling murder case, the two men find themselves drawn into a deadly conspiracy involving local hoodlums, murderous ex-pats, and a mysterious and psychopathic kingpin who presides over a sickening trade in innocent human life.

Set amid the five-star luxury and Third World squalor of Kenya’s east coast, Bait introduces a new and unique crime-busting double act, and sets Nick Brownlee apart as a hot new talent on the crime scene.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Murder piled on grisly murder drives British author Brownlee's uneven debut, a crime thriller set in contemporary Kenya, where expatriates and natives make their own destiny or are crushed by someone else's. Former Scotland Yard copper Jake Moore, co-owner of a marginal sport fishing outfit in Mombasa, owes an Arab oil dealer $17,000 for diesel fuel because the country's civil unrest has scared off Ernies, pale-faced tourists who came to Kenya in search of big fish. Jake; his fellow Brit partner, Harry Philliskirk; and Det. Insp. Daniel Jouma, possibly the only Kenyan cop not on the take, tangle with a variety of nasties, whose crisis-management skills are limited to personal disposal of their opponents. While the book occasionally provides terse, deadly insights into the local culture, it offers mostly predictable glimpses into the unsavory side of the dark continent. Still, Brownlee shows enough promise that readers can reasonably hope for more than just relentless brutality in the sequel. (July)
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From Booklist

Jake Moore retired from Scotland Yard to become a partner in a Kenyan charter-boat business. Five years in, things aren’t going well. The civil war outside Mombasa frightens away European tourists. Jake and partner Harry owe the diesel dealer a bundle, and the general manager of the resort across the bay is taking all his charter business elsewhere. After a friend is murdered, Jake senses that Mombasa’s deeply embedded corruption—heretofore only an annoyance—may be a threat to both his life and business. Daniel Jouma, a Mombasa police investigator, meets and subsequently partners with Jake and the daughter of the murdered friend in an attempt to untangle the death, which was quickly ruled an accident. The three soon realize that solving the crime may be their only hope for survival. Brownlee, a British journalist, creates an overwhelming sense of dread with his portrayal of a society whose institutions are crumbling and whose citizens are left to rely only on their own cunning and toughness. The Jake and Jouma series looks like a keeper. --Wes Lukowsky

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1 edition (July 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312550219
• ISBN-13: 978-0312550219
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,857,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars entertaining Kenyan police procedural private investigative thriller, July 25, 2009

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bait (Hardcover)

In Mombassa, Kenya former Scotland Yard Flying Squad police detective Jake Moore co-owns a minor sport fishing outfit, Britannia Fishing Tours Ltd. Jake and his partner British expatriate Harry Philliskirk owe an Arab oil provider $17,000 for diesel fuel at a time that their business is in trouble due to the "Ernies" tourists. They are frightened by unrest and a teetering economy back home andare not coming to catch big fish in Kenya.

Harry gets involved in transporting hash while Jake works with another boat owner Dennis Bentley. Murders occur over seemingly minor inncidents leading to honest Coast Province Detective Inspector Daniel Jouma to investigate at a time others are in country causing further hostilities between the ethnic groups. Over his head, Daniel asks Jake for help.

This is an entertaining Kenyan police procedural private investigative thriller that provides the audience some insight into the country although much of what the reader sees is unpleasant viciousness that enhances the investigation as the clues lead to the nastier underbelly of society. The story line is fast-paced and the two cops top rate. Although Nick Brownlee skates around the major issues confronting the country, fans will enjoy the aptly named BAIT.

Harriet Klausner

5.0 out of 5 stars I Took the Bait/I'am Hooked !!!, October 20, 2009

By 

R. A. Barricklow "Scaramouche" (Las Vegas NV USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bait (Hardcover)

Great Story! The writing is not only very good - but the plot undercurrents are par excellence!!! By that I mean, in the "Dashiell Hamemett Vein". When Daheill was writing, the 18th Amendent of the Costitution was in effect. Americans were virtually being solicited by their own laws to support illegal trade in liquor. The notion of organized crime or gangs taking over an entire society(Blowing Up Russia) and running it as if it were an ordinary society doing business as usual, were those times(Hammett/Chandler). Now, fast forward to these times(Rogue Economics) with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the freeing up of capital, to where the eternal battle between Economic/Political Power - is now decidedly at the expense of Globalized Political Power, virturally bankrupting it at the expense of the lower & middle classes. It is into this breach that Bait dicharges its story.

A new type of Marlow/Coninental Op is in the making. He is Mombasa detective Daniel Jouma.

The author had me wanting more as the story came to a close.

Can't wait for the next outing of detective Daniel Jouma.

Yesterday is just too Damn long too wait.

I want some more BAIT!

NOW !!!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!

5.0 out of 5 stars Bait, August 30, 2009

By 

Gloria Feit (Long Beach, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bait (Hardcover)

For nearly the first half of "Bait," the excellent debut novel by Nick Brownlee, apparently disconnected events transpire over a period of several days, in measured pace.

The mien of the patrician owner of the luxurious Marlin Bay Hotel, situated in the midst of squalor and stunning poverty in Kenya, is captured by the author perfectly and succinctly: "Getty paused in front of a wall mirror in order to smooth his augmented silver hair across his skull and liberally spray his tongue with peppermint breath-freshener." [His emotional distance from the lives of those who lived outside the protected walls of his compound, embroiled in a civil war that had to that point cost many lives, is perhaps best summed up by his reference to "a little local difficulty."]

Filled with brutality and actions fueled by - in equal parts - as stated by more than one player, stupidity and greed, together with pervasive corruption, the novel begins with the disappearance of Dennis Bentley, a white Kenyan who ran a game boat and had a reputation as "a loner and a cantankerous bastard," soon followed by the disappearance of George Malewe, described as a lowlife from Mombasa Old Town, whose young wife is convinced he has been slain. Things turn ugly when a body is washed up on the beach and Bentley and his bait boy are found to have been blown up in the water, in what may be connected events.

Twenty-nine-year-old ex-Scotland Yard cop Jake Moore is now six years later a game boat skipper, and is asked to assist Mombasa Detective Inspector Daniel Jouma of the Coast Province CID. Jouma, 51 years old and thirty-three years a serving police officer, is seemingly the only good cop on the force. He finds himself almost ludicrously defending his refusal to succumb to the corruption taken for granted by everyone else, and is told "Why? Because you are a policeman? Because you have sworn to uphold the law and protect the people? Don't think so highly of your vocation, Jouma. You saw what happened when they gave the people ballot boxes. Chaos. Anarchy. Death. They are animals and should be treated as such. No, Inspector, Kenya is about one thing and one thing alone: survival of the fittest. "

Set amid the five-star luxury and third world squalor of Kenya's east coast, the challenge to Moore and Jouma is clear. The "bait" of the title is as innocent as the simple thing used by Jake and others on their fishing boats, or something much more sinister. This is a first-class first novel, and promises to be the initial entry in a promised series, with the next title, "Burn," being published by Piatkus in the UK in July of 2009 and hopefully in the US without much further delay. It is next up for this reviewer, and I can't wait! Highly recommended. [It should perhaps be noted that the present novel was originally published in the UK by Piatkus in December of 2008.