Iris Mwanza takes readers back to 1990s Zambia in her insightful historical crime fiction debut The Lions’ Den. While the action of this novel centres around a young lawyer and her pro bono case, Mwanza uses her characters and scenario to explore discrimination, the AIDS epidemic and the broader political history and movements in the country at the time.
Grace Zulu is a rookie lawyer for a commercial law firm, handed one of the occasional pro bono cases. That case involves a young man called Wilbess “Bessy” Mulenga, arrested for committing homosexual acts in an intensely conservative country. Grace pushes against the system and then finds that Wilbess has been officially released only he never made it home and the police have not record of him leaving. Despite the misgivings of her boss, Grace pits herself against the system to find out what happened to Bessy, stirring up a broader political movement in the process.
The Lions’ Den gives readers an insight into Zambian culture and politics in the 1990s through the case that Grace is working, the backstories of many of the characters who participated in Zambia’s anti colonial movement and the story of Grace herself. Grace’s backstory, how she came to leave her village and go to university is a fascinating one and gives great insight into her strength and determination as a character.
The Lions’ Den is a fascinating crime debut and once again shows the power of crime fiction to draw readers in and illuminate a particular time and place.
The Lions' Den by Iris Mwanza
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