Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Top 10 African crime novels

Michael Stanley is the writing team of native Africans Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip.

They named their top ten crime novels for the Guardian. One title on the list:
Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey

2009 saw the debut of a talented Ghanian crime writer who lives in the United States. Inspector Darko Dawson is a detective in Accra, a moody and potentially violent man. He is asked to investigate a murder in the rural village of Ketanu where he has relatives. Soon he is embroiled with traditional beliefs and fetish priests juxtaposed with modern doctors and AIDS concerns. Kwei reveals the cultural conflicts of an African country trying to become a modern nation; many of the issues remind us of similar tensions in Botswana. Darko ponders these issues as he lights a joint, and slowly, with clever intuition and careful police work, homes in on the solution to the case. A solution he would rather not have found.
Read about the other novels on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Wife of the Gods.

--Marshal Zeringue