Literary Tuesday: A review of J.Michael’s Black Spell – A story of lust and murder

The book follows Daniel Pullman, a white man, who is also arguably the most renowned of all tennis players. Dan seems to have everything going for him: he is on top of his career, he is super rich, handsome and adored by all and sundry. He has a beautiful fiancee, Cindy, who is very much in love with and will do anything for him. Yet he was unsatisfied and unsettled, on the edge of a burnout. Something seems to be missing in his life and he craves an escape from it all to reevaluate it.

So when his brother, Joe, suggested they go on a holiday to a luxurious resort in the fictional town of Pella in a little imaginary African country of Limbaki, Dan jumped at the opportunity craving the anonymity that the resort offers. There he would meet and fall in love with Leticia, the unassuming and shy black African hotel maid who caught not only his fancy but also his heart. Dan would embark on a passionate journey of carnal pleasure forgetting every other thing. Nothing else seems to matter – not his fiance, not his family and certainly not his career. His yearning for Leticia’s soft body eclipses all else, leaving his family worried.

Then there was a coup and the reality hits – Dan must return to the US, to a waiting fiance, family and the tennis world but not before some doubts on his sporting ability has been sown. He has found that he was unable to beat Leticia’s brother, Kolo, an amateur tennis player at games they had played leading him to doubt his own ability.

While in the US, Dan – a decent man, arranged to bring Leticia and his brother to the US to help them escape almost certain death. Letitia would continue to live as his mistress in the apartment he had set up for her while her brother would work in the Pullmans sporting store. Everything seems to have fallen into place until one day Kolo’s lifeless body was discovered by his colleague from the Pullman stores. Then all hell broke loose.

Who could have hated the decent, likeable African boy so much as to kill him? What possible motives could they have to want his head? By professing a desire to go into professional tennis, had Kolo signed his own death warrant when he broke his agreement with the Pullmans? But the Pullmans seem to have impenetrable alibis.

There is Leticia, mourning a dead brother, rejected by her lover and pregnant with his unwanted child. Can she afford to lose everything and start afresh?

What about Kolo’s missing girlfriend, Betsy, and her Asian and violent ex-boyfriend, Li-Pon, who wanted her back by all means? Both are nowhere to be found and were among the last persons to see him alive.

Then there is the tabloid reporter, Tom Harrison, determined to sully Dan’s spotless public image. He has an insatiable thirst for scandals and has no qualms about selling his story to the highest bidder. How much is his price?

Black Spell is a study of human behaviours, of how emotions can cloud one’s judgement. For it is during challenging times that we can discover our true selves. Yet, there are neither heroes nor villains only our conscience to serve as beacons to guide our path. In Black Spell, just as in If Only,  J.Michael makes no judgment giving the reader the freedom to make up their own mind and to choose the path that their conscience dictates.

Did Daniel Pullman go back? Find out in Black Spell by J.Michael

Black Spell is available for purchase on Amazon and Jumia. Grab your copy today.