The Missing American

November 18, 2019
At the start of this solid series launch from Quartey (the Darko Dawson series), a sniper assassinates Bernard Evans-Aidoo, a Ghanaian presidential candidate campaigning on an anti-corruption platform. Meanwhile, the hopes of 26-year-old Emma Djan, a detective constable in Accra, to become a homicide detective like her late father are dashed after she resists the advances of the sleazy commissioner of police, who offered her a transfer to the murder squad in return for sex; the commissioner then has her fired on trumped up charges. After doing some other work, Emma leaps at the opportunity to join a PI firm, which involves her in a complex missing person’s case. American Gordon Tilson, a lonely widower, was lured to Ghana by Helena, an online scam artist who pretended to be interested in him romantically and accepted thousands from him to pay her sister’s supposed medical bills. Soon after Tilson decided to try to seek justice, he disappeared. Quartey keeps readers guessing as to whether and how the political murder is linked to the Tilson case. Readers will welcome Emma into the ranks of capable female detectives. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff Literary.

Robin Miles's expressive narration of Kwei Quartey's new mystery series about private investigator Emma Djan adds a colorful layer of atmosphere to an engaging story. Set in Accra, the plot revolves around the search for an American widower who disappears after coming from the U.S. to meet a Ghanaian widow he has encountered online. Emma, whose combination of smarts, social subservience, and determination are beautifully voiced, teams up with the widower's son to investigate a case that takes them into an underworld of fetish priests and Internet scams. Miles illuminates men and women, including a terrifying fetish priest, with well-chosen accents and characterizations, and helps listeners navigate Ghana's prejudicial social norms with a keep-calm narration. Long may the investigations continue with Miles, Quartey, and Djan. A.C.S. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine