Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

Any time one group of people rebels against another, tensions are high, and sometimes, some terrible things happen. No matter which side one’s on, rebellions can bring out the worst in people and can lead to tragedy. Because of all that’s at stake during a rebellion, it’s not surprising that we see them in crime fiction. Here are just a few examples; I know you’ll think of more.

In Agatha Christie’s Cat Among the Pigeons, there is a revolution in the Middle Eastern country of Ramat. Things get so dangerous that the prince needs to escape. He enlists an English friend to help him get out of the country before it’s too late. The consequences of the revolution and the prince’s decision are felt at Meadowbank, an exclusive girls school. Honoria Bulstrode, head of the school, faces severe challenges when there’s a murder and then a kidnapping at the school. Parents begin removing their daughters, and it looks as though the school may have to consider closing. One of the pupils, Julia Upjohn, enlists the help of Hercule Poirot, and he investigates. It’s an interesting example of how a revolt or rebellion can have unintended consequences in different places.

We also see that impact in Donna Leon’s Blood From a Stone. In it, Venice Commissario Guido Brunetti and his team investigate when a Senegalese immigrant is shot, execution-style, while he’s laying out his wares at an open-air market. It could be a racially motivated crime, but as Brunetti and his assistant, Ispettore Vianello, look more deeply into the matter, they find another possibility. The victim had a valuable cache of diamonds hidden in his room. And these gems are very likely ‘blood diamonds,’ used to purchase arms and equipment for armed rebellions. That discovery makes the case that much harder to solve, since now it could very well involve another country, and the rebel groups involved in the conflict.

Brian Stoddart’s A Madras Miasma takes place in 1920 in Madras (now Chennai), during the last years of the Raj. The English are still firmly in charge, and plenty of people want to keep it that way. But there is simmering resentment against the Raj, and it sometimes boils over. Against this tense background, Superintendent Christian ‘Chris’ Le Fanu and his assistant, Sergeant Muhammad ‘Habi’ Habibullah are expected to keep order and maintain the town’s safety. They’re faced with a severe challenge when the body of a young woman is pulled from the Buckingham Canal. Since the victim was European, there’s special pressure to catch the criminal. Soon, the woman is identified as Jane Carstairs, an Englishwoman who’d come to India hoping to meet (and hopefully make a match with) an eligible high-ranking British officer. Now, the team has to trace her movements and find out who would have wanted to kill her. In the meantime, a protest is staged, and Le Fanu will have to deal with it. The protest turns very ugly, and there’s a murder. Now, La Fanu and his team have to solve two cases.

Abir Mukherjee’s A Rising Man takes place around the same time in Kolkata/Calcutta. Captain Sam Wyndham just arrived in the city to begin his duties with the Indian Police Service. He’s just beginning to settle in when there’s word of a murder. It seems that Alexander MacAuley, head of Indian Civil Service (ICS) finance for Bengal, has been murdered, and a note found stuffed in his mouth. The note threatens that ‘blood will run in the streets,’ and warns, ‘Quit England!’ The logical conclusion is that MacAuley was murdered by a terrorist group working for Indian independence. So, one of the police’s targets is a leader in that movement named Benoy Sen, who’s recently returned from exile. But the case isn’t as simple as that, and Wyndham and his assistant, Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee, are faced with a very complex task. All of this takes place against a background of not-so-hidden resentment and plenty of mutual mistrust between the British and the Indian people.

In Stephen Legault’s The Third Riel Conspiracy, which takes place in 1885, the focus is on a group of Métis, and an associated group of indigenous people, who are involved in a revolt against the Canadian government. They believe that the government is not respecting their rights or protecting their land, and they are willing to fight for what they believe. With this unrest in the background, Durant Wallace of the Northwest Mounted Police (today, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) has a new case to solve. A Métis fighter named Terrence La Biche is arrested for murdering Reuben Wake, whose body is found in a Canadian encampment. But he may not be guilty. The murder may be related to the rebellion, or it may not. But with feelings running as high as they are, it’s not going to be easy for Wallace to get people to tell what they know, and there’s pressure from all around as he investigates.

There’ve been rebellions in many places in the world, for thousands of years. They have a lot of consequences, many of them tragic, and they can have a lasting impact. They can also serve as an effective background for a crime novel.

*NOTE: The title of this post is the title of a song by Bob Marley.