Lightseekers

January 4, 2021
Kayode debuts with an intriguing if uneven crime novel set in contemporary Nigeria. A prominent banker, whose son was one of three undergraduates “beaten, broken, and burnt alive” by an angry mob in the university town of Okriki, asks “investigative psychologist” Philip Taiwo to find out what really happened. Footage of the crime is widely shared on social media, and a number of people are arrested and tried, but no reasonable motive emerges. In Okriki, Taiwo slowly, and cleverly, pulls the veil back on violent, secret societies of college-age men, discovering resonance between mob violence in Nigeria and lynchings in the American South. As sociology, the book is fascinating, but as a novel it flags; the narrative isn’t tight and the victims get lost in the shuffle. Moreover, there’s a substantial disconnect between the horrific crimes and Taiwo’s jokey commentary on his own life. Though Kayode creates occasional suspense and a powerful sense of place, the story fails to gel. Those curious about Nigerian culture and politics will be most satisfied. Agent: Harry Illingworth, DHH Agency (U.K.). (Mar.)Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly stated the author of this book used a pseudonym.

March 15, 2021
Three young men are brutally killed by an enraged mob in a small Nigerian university town. Investigative psychologist Dr. Philip Taiwo, who studies mob violence, is temporarily back in Lagos, his hometown, with his law professor wife, after their long sojourn in the U.S. He's an academic, not an in-the-field investigator, yet at the behest of his father, who knows the wealthy father of one of the victims, Philip agrees to visit the crime scene. He's provided with a driver, but Chika proves to be a far more talented and complex associate. As his kind, smart, and wryly bumbling hero strives to fathom the toxic conflict between the town and the university, Kayode deftly meshes incandescent descriptions with subtly escalating action, while casting light on social inequities and the ease with which anger can be stoked and weaponized on social media. As Philip ponders the history of vigilante bloodshed in Nigeria and lynching in the U.S., and the fact that nations that fail to confront historic injustices are doomed to repeat them, we're reminded that mob violence can erupt anywhere, including the U.S. Capitol. With alluring characters, including a chillingly psychotic villain; an original, many-faceted plot; and blazing psychological and social insights, Kayode's commanding and thought-provoking first crime novel launches a profoundly promising series.

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