Shades of Agatha Christie in Omoseye Bolaji's work

Agatha Christie. One of the greatest writers of mystery books the world has ever seen. Millions of her readers would even state emphatically that she was perhaps the all-time greatest. But it hardly matters.

Christie has inspired so many people around the world, and apparently even in Africa where the few black writers who try to churn out mystery books of their own often point to her as an influence, one way or the other. In the case of well known mystery writer Omoseye Bolaji, he unashamedly admits that he read many Agatha Christie novels in his youth and admired sleuths like Hercule Poirot and Ms Marple.

Those who have been striving to link Bolaji's works of mystery – especially the series on Tebogo Mokoena the detective – to other world famous works remark on the humour, the racy action and dialogue, the twists and turns. But specific links to Agatha Christie have not been spelt out formally; some of which I will point out here.

Omoseye Bolaji's novel, People of the Townships (2003) stunned so many because of the unexpected ending. Here a young man, seemingly harmless and something of a gentleman, narrates the story in the first person himself – and it is only at the end of the book that we realise that he himself is guilty of a murder! (Killing his "woman")

Yet this special technique had been used decades ago by Agatha Christie in thrilling works of hers like Endless night, and The murder of Roger Ackroyd where the first person narrator is actually guilty of the crime, but this is revealed only at the end of the work. It is unlikely that Bolaji himself will deny he was thus influenced by Agatha Christie in writing his own book (People of the townships)

Another thing is that Tebogo Mokoena, the sleuth created by Omoseye Bolaji, like Poirot and Miss Marple, does not revel in violence. He does all he can to solve cases in a cerebral way, shying away from overt physical exertions. He often relies on his "little cells" whilst investigating. He does not belong to the hard, tough school of investigators where wanton violence is the order of the day.

Many commentators on Agatha Christie's work have also remarked that she – or rather her characters - are often impressed with physical beauty. Such beauty provides a catalyst for many murders in her work; eg a man desiring a beautiful woman at all costs and killing people because of this; like in Christie's The moving finger (1942)

There is no doubt that physical beauty, especially of women, is important to Bolaji too. Just note the gallery of "lovely, delectable" ladies who dot so many of his (Bolaji's) works of fiction! Like Susan (Tebogo Investigates) Lorna (Tebogo's spot of bother) Lupna (People of the townships), Charlotte (Tebogo and the Haka), Neo, (Tebogo and the epithalamion) and also Debbie (Tebogo and the pantophagist)

And it is also likely that some of the famous titles published by Agatha Christie in her heyday influenced a few of Bolaji's titles himself. Perhaps the most famous example is Bolaji's The ghostly adversary (2001). Was the title influenced by Christie's The Secret Adversary (1922)

Indeed Tebogo Mokoena – the sleuth created by Bolaji -  is such a gentleman that a critic (Pule Lebuso) was moved to comment on him: "…women are treated with such fulsome respect in Bolaji's fiction to the extent that it can even lead to absurd, dangerous situations as we see at the end of Tebogo's spot of bother,"

But in the end, Bolaji's investigators get to the bottom of the sundry mysteries – just like Agatha Christie's sleuths!

-Peter Moroe