Dancing with the Witchdoctor: One Woman's Stories of Mystery and Adventure in Africa

by Kelly James

Book Overview

In a series of moving and powerful stories based on her experiences as a private investigator, Kelly James draws us into the mystery that is Africa. A lone woman searching for the lost, she exposes us... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060933909
• ISBN13: 9780060933906
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Truth more fascinating than fiction

Private investigator Kelly Clark has an adventurous spirit. That spirit leads her to take investigative contracts on the forgotten continent of Africa. She stares death in the face and somehow lives to write about it.That synposis sounds like a page-turning novel, but this book is much better because it is true. Kelly James is a red-headed American who fell in love with adventure when she as a youngster and tells of her African experience in four stirring vignettes. She is a modern renaissance woman. A master of African culture, regional history and the human condition. She also writes incredibly well.This book is not for the weak or soft any more than Indiana Jones would appeal to those of high sensitivities. James' Africa is harsh and real. As the sun beats down, mankind also often does the same to its fellow earthly inhabitants. But the lessons James teaches are invaluable. Her love for Africa and its people is indisputable. James teaches us lessons poignantly and with page-turning adventure. Western arrogance can be very dangerous.A must-read, I recommend this book to all readers who don't need life candy-coated. A winner!

Not one boring sentence and the action never stops. Great!

I love true stories about adventures in faraway places. And this fine book certainly meets that test. Kelly James gives us a short introductory chapter in which she describes her upbringing on a ranch in the American northwest. She was raised to ride and shoot and live with adventure. Soon, she realized she didn't want to be relegated to a typical female role in life. And so she became a private investigator and has traveled all over the world in a wide variety of international business investigations. Mostly, she works in Africa and the book is comprised of four separate stories about a few unique assignments. Her writing style is fast-paced, breezy and has the sense of adventure that obviously drives her life. There's not one boring sentence in the whole book and the action never stops. I read these stories with the kind of attention that kept me breathless and turning the pages as something new happens on every page. And my sense of wonder at her bravery and willingness to take risks never ceased. I just couldn't stop reading and was sorry when this 235-page book ended. In the first story she investigates a mysterious death of a wealthy plantation owner. In the second story she travels into the depths of gorilla country. In the third story she helps a young man visit his war-torn land. And, in the last story, she is hired to investigate a young female African doctor's disappearance. Often, she fines herself in personal danger and has is forced to survive in a very hostile environment. Each one of these stories kept my eyes glued to the page. I couldn't put the book down until they were finished. "Dancing With the Witchdoctor" was a mini-adventure for me. It brought me to places I've only dreamed of visiting and made me identify with the author's courage, stamina and sense of adventure. For me, reading this book was like being picked up by a whirlwind and experiencing the trip of my life. I loved it! Highly recommended.

A story of strong women

I loved how Kelly James wrote a book honoring the women she met in her adventures in Africa, instead of just describing those adventures. The sights and sounds in this book will stay with me a long time.The story, Gorillas and Banana Beer, is a tale of hope in the face of no possible reason to hope, of a young man's discovery of a reason to live and give back when he found no life in our culture, of the bravery and strength and endurance of those who are trying to protect the children and gorillas. This story and the others are too powerful to describe. Remind yourself again that America is not all there is to the world.

Inspirational Adventures out of Africa

Dancing with the Witchdoctor is a marvelous book, all the more remarkable because it is Kelly James' first one. This account of some of her experiences as a private investigator in Africa reads like a well-crafted novel, a page turner at that. But as she says in the preface, these tales are not about her. James' aim is to tell the stories of women she met and the extraordinary ways they prevailed against the challenges of ordinary life in Africa in these troubled times. She succeeds with gusto.James calls them "heroines," and does them proud. Among others, she introduces us to the Watusi women of Rwanda, to Moana of Mozambique, and to Lua, a Turkana woman who saves Kelly's life. The qualities James admires in these people come through in the text: courage, compassion, commitment. I found inspiration here.The land, the elements themselves, have presence in Dancing with the Witchdoctor, notably the unceasing winds of Lake Turkana and the rainforest home of the mountain gorillas. The book smacks of Africa. The beat of life that drew James to that continent resounds in these pages.This book defies categorization. One Seattle book store originally put it under travel, until an employee who had read it, said "no way." Another has it under World History for some reason. Call it an adventure story (which it is), and people think fiction. Say it's a memoir, and watch people yawn. It's by a woman about women, but it's not a "woman's book," or if it is, you certainly don't have to be a female to treasure it. One category this book certainly fits: Damn Good Read!

Dancing with Kelly

For anyone who ever dreamed of Africa, Kelly James takes you there; not the sanitized safari wagon tours, but the real, the scary, the truly exotic Africa. The characters with which she peoples her stories are individuals you would like to have known, would have been privileged to know. Enjoy!