Skin Deep

Finished March 17

Skin Deep by Peter Dickinson

This is the first book in a series, featuring DS James (Jimmy) Pibble. I read the third book about thirty-five years ago, but don't remember much about it. This book, first published in 1968, is set in London, in a Victorian terrace house occupied by a small tribe of people from New Guinea. The book doesn't age all that well, in my opinion. 

The name they call themselves is Ku, and they are now using it as a last name. They came here after World War II, during which the rest of their tribe and the missionary and his wife who lived in their village were killed by the Japanese. The organizer of them here is Eve Ku, the daughter of the missionaries, who married one of the tribe, and went on to get to get a doctorate in anthropology based on her study of their customs and beliefs. Outside of her and her husband Paul, an artist, who have their own room, and the chief, who has his own room, the men and women live separately in large rooms they refer to as tents. 

Dr. Ku describes them as primitive compared to other New Guinea tribes. Their rituals and behaviours are described with detail as they arise in the novel. 

The story begins with the murder of their chief Aaron. He is an elderly man in poor health, but the death is obviously through violence, and since they keep their house door locked, and the death is outside of the actions expected from any tribe member, they are at a loss as to who would have done it.

As Pibble digs into the case, he takes in a lot of information on the tribe's activities, and even attends some of their ceremonies. 

All of the tribe members speak or understand English to some degree, some of them very well, and they have biblical names, presumable given to them by the missionary. They speak to each other in their own language, and are close to a couple who have a flat next door, as the man came into their lives back in the war. 

Some of the way the police and their neighbours talk about them uses language and attitudes that we find offensive now, but that was more commonly used at time of the writing of the book. It was an odd book to me, and I couldn't help wondering whether the author researched New Guinea culture or made it up. With the primitive beliefs and habits of the tribe juxtaposed against the educated speech of Eve and Paul, it just felt off.