Mukoma wa Ngugi

A very random selection at the library. Influenced mostly by the fact that it's Melville House. But it ended up being somehow a way to still engage with the world of Sense8 (cancelled right around the time I read this book -- *sob*). I don't think I've read anything set in Kenya before -- so everything I know about Nairobi and the tribes of Kenya is pretty much from Sense8.

I know I said crime/mystery wasn't my genre when I reviewed another crime novel two books ago. It seems I read one or two a year. There is something lovely about a book where mysteries are solved, people pay for their crimes, and the clever prevail. This book may not end quite as neatly as some, but then, it blows up into a much bigger mess in the middle. What starts as a body in the woods is linked to a bombing in a hotel, which all links eventually to a massive government-toppling international conspiracy.

In the meantime this book turns an interesting lens on both white fetishism of African cultures in particular and racism and tribalism in general. Definitely an interesting read.… (altro)

Fast, thoughtful and fun thriller

A dead white girl is found on the doorstep of a Rwandan Professor, revered as a hero for his actions during the genocide. A mix which has the media in a frenzy, the local KKK riled and a scapegoat desperately needed. Dead ends abound until a glimmer of light, far far away in Nairobi. Ishmael is going to have to go back to his ancestral home and face some truth about himself, about society

Racial tensions and corruption, colonialism and genocide mix in the heady culture clash of USA and Kenya. Mixed with the love, friendship & finding ones place in the world. It’s a heady (used heady twice)mix but stays a cool noir thriller throughout with car chases and internal conspiracies, whilst using the genre to look to explore how to right a terrible wrong, what lengths do you go. What does justice mean. It’s exactly the kind of thing Noir is for.

“Do not commit crimes against white people because the state will not rest until you are caught.”

I bought this for a non-western slant and to my inexperienced eye wasn't disappointed. The characters slowly grew on me and afterwards I find myself needing to read book 2. O and Ishmael make a good partnership and if women don't overload the text at least they aren’t wallflowers. The action’s good, I enjoyed the mystery, although parts of it do stretch the credibility.. suspension of disbelief I suspect required, I mean I had to overcome the oddity at a US cop flown to Nairobi to pursue a case when the obvious suspect is sitting right there (& they didn’t even search his house). My only other complaint is that the initial US bits felt a bit flat compared to Kenya. Still it makes a change.. ahem.

Recommended, a fine Noir/hard boiled crime novel. However if you are extremely fixated on plots being 100% believable & perfect this may raise hackles.… (altro)

FTC Disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher via Edelweiss.

Black Star is the name of the detective agency run by two former police officers: the African-American Ishmael and Kenyan O. The story begins with the hungry-for-work pair taking on a case passed on to them from the police: the murder of a man found in the forbidding woods hours outside Nairobi. Almost immediately, a massive bombing of a hotel in Nairobi is connected to the murder they are investigating, and U.S. embassy and CIA handlers are also involved in the case. What started as a PI procedural turns into an international political conspiracy thriller.

In many ways, this is a disorienting book. The main character is an African American police officer turned private detective in Kenya: we get an outsider's perspective of Kenya and Kenyan crimes. The violent parts of the book, of which there are many, are also jarring. The action shifting from Kenya to North America is another disorienting shift in the case (how do you work within the law in your home country and outside the law in another). But, most importantly, the precarious political position of Kenya on the eve of and after a disputed election is key. How on earth do Ishmael and O do their jobs during this time and after all the horrible things that happen to them and those they love during this case? It's a bleak book. A search for a murderer turns into a search for a bomber of many and his twisted motives. But it's not an unrelentingly bleak book. There are funny and happy scenes sprinkled throughout the story. O and Ishmael's scenes in the beginning section of the novel are pretty funny.

This was an interesting read for the big political and ethical issues it raises, but the plotting felt a little slow to me. I think that's because the only other international conspiracy thriller that comes to mind for me is Bloodland by Alan Glynn. Despite the plotting issue, I want to see where this series goes next.… (altro)