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Dr. Mary Finney #2
The Cabinda Affair
World War II is over but Hooper Taliafero is still in Africa, tying up Uncle Sam's loose ends. The latest end is in Cabinda, a tiny Portuguese colony with gaily painted buildings and a history of slave-trading. Hoop should have a pleasant stay at the home of the local administrator but the other guests are an unpleasant mix of hangers-on, including a shady lawyer and an overly chummy Brit. When one of them is murdered, Hoop calls in Dr. Mary Finney, the Miss Marple of the tropics. As usual, the formidable Dr. Finney has both stellar sleuthing skills and a .45 in her necessaries bag. Both will come in handy if she's to sort through the tangled threads of the Cabinda Affair.
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1949
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 23, 2017
I know Matthew Head is a pseudonym for John Edwin Canaday, who died in 1985, but this second in the Dr. Mary Finney series sure as hell reads like JD Salinger thought Holden Caulfield should attend college, go into business, get bored and end up in 1950s Africa. Not a bad thing.
February 13, 2018
The Cabinda Affair was a solid middle of the road mystery for me. It had a lot of good points, it was written really well, and despite being slow it had a way of drawing me in and keeping me engaged with the narrator.
That being said, the mystery wasn’t much of a mystery, the twist wasn’t much of a twist, the protagonists were mostly passive, and there wasn’t really that much to the actual story itself.
Hooper Taliaferro was the main character, and he really did nothing at all; he even touched upon this when he mentions that his only job is as a government representative, to verify that a shipment of wood is in fact the right amount and kind of wood it’s supposed to be. But he didn’t do much sleuthing or anything, and the rare times he got up and went out he mostly just ended up sick.
This in itself isn’t a problem because he’s sort of the narrative device here, the Watson to Finney’s Holmes, very loosely anyway. But it doesn’t work so well when Finney doesn’t take an active role in the story until the last 25%. Her active role also does not involve that much actual action. Almost none, again.
The mystery itself was also very weak. While the exact details about some of the legal stuff was impossible to guess until it was revealed, it was a boring reveal. But the actual murder mystery was so obvious it didn’t feel like any sort of secret. And then near the end, at the twist, it’s not shocking, and it doesn’t really change anything. It’s better than nothing, sure, but that’s not a lot.
So why’d this still get three stars? It was the writing and the adventure of it all. The author has a great way of describing the enclaves of Africa in detail and metaphors alike. I enjoyed the character interactions between Hoop and Finney, and there still were a couple of small surprises and revelations that made you re-look at what you’d earlier read.
One description that really stuck with me is the introduction of a sleazy lawyer named Senhor da Cunha:
I love how vivid a picture that passage paints.
One strange thing about this book was the prominence of sexuality. Neither Hoop nor Finney engaged in anything, and a few times outright refused to, but it seemed to be both on Hoop’s mind as he described things, as well as very present in most of the characters. The detail the book went into about Luiz being a pimp, then Henrique being mentioned again and again as some kind of expert sexual connoisseur… I don’t really think it played into the story that well and caught me a little off-guard, but it didn’t take me out completely. I chalked it up to just more flavor.
It was an interesting adventure tale with a somewhat weak mystery plot, but it was still overall enjoyable.
That being said, the mystery wasn’t much of a mystery, the twist wasn’t much of a twist, the protagonists were mostly passive, and there wasn’t really that much to the actual story itself.
Hooper Taliaferro was the main character, and he really did nothing at all; he even touched upon this when he mentions that his only job is as a government representative, to verify that a shipment of wood is in fact the right amount and kind of wood it’s supposed to be. But he didn’t do much sleuthing or anything, and the rare times he got up and went out he mostly just ended up sick.
This in itself isn’t a problem because he’s sort of the narrative device here, the Watson to Finney’s Holmes, very loosely anyway. But it doesn’t work so well when Finney doesn’t take an active role in the story until the last 25%. Her active role also does not involve that much actual action. Almost none, again.
The mystery itself was also very weak. While the exact details about some of the legal stuff was impossible to guess until it was revealed, it was a boring reveal. But the actual murder mystery was so obvious it didn’t feel like any sort of secret. And then near the end, at the twist, it’s not shocking, and it doesn’t really change anything. It’s better than nothing, sure, but that’s not a lot.
So why’d this still get three stars? It was the writing and the adventure of it all. The author has a great way of describing the enclaves of Africa in detail and metaphors alike. I enjoyed the character interactions between Hoop and Finney, and there still were a couple of small surprises and revelations that made you re-look at what you’d earlier read.
One description that really stuck with me is the introduction of a sleazy lawyer named Senhor da Cunha:
…with them was a thin, white-skinned, bald-headed little man who projected before him a perfectly round little melon belly that looked as if it might at any moment rip from its own weight through the tender membrane of abdominal skin that supported it. This was the belly of Senhor da Cunha… he was excessively bent, even for an old man, and a slight muscular distortion on one side of his face had twisted it into a perpetual leer. He was bothered by a watering of the eyes, and he blinked unceasingly in a losing race with this affliction. Every few moments a tear would slip out anyway. He would mop it away quickly with his handkerchief, but before long another tear would well out between blinks, so that he would repeat the gesture. It was difficult not to watch him, the way it is difficult not to listen to the ticking of two clocks or any other unmatched rhythms as they approach synchronization and then fall out of it again…
I love how vivid a picture that passage paints.
One strange thing about this book was the prominence of sexuality. Neither Hoop nor Finney engaged in anything, and a few times outright refused to, but it seemed to be both on Hoop’s mind as he described things, as well as very present in most of the characters. The detail the book went into about Luiz being a pimp, then Henrique being mentioned again and again as some kind of expert sexual connoisseur… I don’t really think it played into the story that well and caught me a little off-guard, but it didn’t take me out completely. I chalked it up to just more flavor.
It was an interesting adventure tale with a somewhat weak mystery plot, but it was still overall enjoyable.
April 1, 2022
The second of the three Talliaferro (Tolliver) 1940s African mysteries and read because of the setting in the enclave of Cabinda and the exotic connection to late pre-colonial Africa. This time, Tolliver tells the story to Dr Finney of a murder connected to a lucrative contract for wood and a strange Portuguese family which ultimately sees him return to Cabinda with Dr Finney and her companion. It needed to be briefer, but the characterisations were good (although the roles of most of the women were very much bound up with 1940s attitudes and mores) and the atmosphere was well-rendered.
May 31, 2022
An enjoyable story set in a place you won't find in other mysteries. It takes a few minutes of research to get the background of Cabinda, which helps since the description of the place is a big part of the fun. The mystery isn't that great, but the characters and writing are well done and it's a fun read.
May 25, 2016
The Cabinda Affair was a solid middle of the road mystery for me. It had a lot of good points, it was written really well, and despite being slow it had a way of drawing me in and keeping me engaged with the narrator.
That being said, the mystery wasn't much of a mystery, the twist wasn't much of a twist, the protagonists were mostly passive, and there wasn't really that much to the actual story itself.
Hooper Taliaferro was the main character, and he really did nothing at all; he even touched upon this when he mentions that his only job is as a government representative, to verify that a shipment of wood is in fact the right amount and kind of wood it's supposed to be. But he didn't do much sleuthing or anything, and the rare times he got up and went out he mostly just ended up sick.
This in itself isn't a problem because he's sort of the narrative device here, the Watson to Finney's Holmes, very loosely anyway. But it doesn't work so well when Finney doesn't take an active role in the story until the last 25%. Her active role also does not involve that much actual action. Almost none, again.
The mystery itself was also very weak. While the exact details about some of the legal stuff was impossible to guess until it was revealed, it was a boring reveal. But the actual murder mystery was so obvious it didn't feel like any sort of secret. And then near the end, at the twist, it's not shocking, and it doesn't really change anything. It's better than nothing, sure, but that's not a lot.
So why'd this still get three stars? It was the writing and the adventure of it all. The author has a great way of describing the enclaves of Africa in detail and metaphors alike. I enjoyed the character interactions between Hoop and Finney, and there still were a couple of small surprises and revelations that made you re-look at what you'd earlier read.
One description that really stuck with me is the introduction of a sleazy lawyer named Senhor da Cunha:
...with them was a thin, white-skinned, bald-headed little man who projected before him a perfectly round little melon belly that looked as if it might at any moment rip from its own weight through the tender membrane of abdominal skin that supported it. This was the belly of Senhor da Cunha... he was excessively bent, even for an old man, and a slight muscular distortion on one side of his face had twisted it into a perpetual leer. He was bothered by a watering of the eyes, and he blinked unceasingly in a losing race with this affliction. Every few moments a tear would slip out anyway. He would mop it away quickly with his handkerchief, but before long another tear would well out between blinks, so that he would repeat the gesture. It was difficult not to watch him, the way it is difficult not to listen to the ticking of two clocks or any other unmatched rhythms as they approach synchronization and then fall out of it again...
I love how vivid a picture that passage paints.
One strange thing about this book was the prominence of sexuality. Neither Hoop nor Finney engaged in anything, and a few times outright refused to, but it seemed to be both on Hoop's mind as he described things, as well as very present in most of the characters. The detail the book went into about Luiz being a pimp, then Henrique being mentioned again and again as some kind of expert sexual connoisseur... I don't really think it played into the story that well and caught me a little off-guard, but it didn't take me out completely. I chalked it up to just more flavor.
It was an interesting adventure tale with a somewhat weak mystery plot, but it was still overall enjoyable.
That being said, the mystery wasn't much of a mystery, the twist wasn't much of a twist, the protagonists were mostly passive, and there wasn't really that much to the actual story itself.
Hooper Taliaferro was the main character, and he really did nothing at all; he even touched upon this when he mentions that his only job is as a government representative, to verify that a shipment of wood is in fact the right amount and kind of wood it's supposed to be. But he didn't do much sleuthing or anything, and the rare times he got up and went out he mostly just ended up sick.
This in itself isn't a problem because he's sort of the narrative device here, the Watson to Finney's Holmes, very loosely anyway. But it doesn't work so well when Finney doesn't take an active role in the story until the last 25%. Her active role also does not involve that much actual action. Almost none, again.
The mystery itself was also very weak. While the exact details about some of the legal stuff was impossible to guess until it was revealed, it was a boring reveal. But the actual murder mystery was so obvious it didn't feel like any sort of secret. And then near the end, at the twist, it's not shocking, and it doesn't really change anything. It's better than nothing, sure, but that's not a lot.
So why'd this still get three stars? It was the writing and the adventure of it all. The author has a great way of describing the enclaves of Africa in detail and metaphors alike. I enjoyed the character interactions between Hoop and Finney, and there still were a couple of small surprises and revelations that made you re-look at what you'd earlier read.
One description that really stuck with me is the introduction of a sleazy lawyer named Senhor da Cunha:
...with them was a thin, white-skinned, bald-headed little man who projected before him a perfectly round little melon belly that looked as if it might at any moment rip from its own weight through the tender membrane of abdominal skin that supported it. This was the belly of Senhor da Cunha... he was excessively bent, even for an old man, and a slight muscular distortion on one side of his face had twisted it into a perpetual leer. He was bothered by a watering of the eyes, and he blinked unceasingly in a losing race with this affliction. Every few moments a tear would slip out anyway. He would mop it away quickly with his handkerchief, but before long another tear would well out between blinks, so that he would repeat the gesture. It was difficult not to watch him, the way it is difficult not to listen to the ticking of two clocks or any other unmatched rhythms as they approach synchronization and then fall out of it again...
I love how vivid a picture that passage paints.
One strange thing about this book was the prominence of sexuality. Neither Hoop nor Finney engaged in anything, and a few times outright refused to, but it seemed to be both on Hoop's mind as he described things, as well as very present in most of the characters. The detail the book went into about Luiz being a pimp, then Henrique being mentioned again and again as some kind of expert sexual connoisseur... I don't really think it played into the story that well and caught me a little off-guard, but it didn't take me out completely. I chalked it up to just more flavor.
It was an interesting adventure tale with a somewhat weak mystery plot, but it was still overall enjoyable.
November 23, 2016
Interesting setting (Portuguese-controlled central Africa) for its time (1949), breezy in its dialogue, gothic in its characterizations, and murky in its plot details (the American hero cleaning up loose ends of a sort for some unspecified bureaucracy.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews