2.5=

1. A Ghanaian mystery! Yay!!
2. An extremely slow read.
3. Way too much fluff, but it was kinda interesting.
4. Predictable...except for that part. Yeah, didn't see that coming.
5. Darko Dawson is so blah, not appealing in anyway.

This is just not for me. It makes me extremely uncomfortable reading it, in more ways than one. But it’s not my place to critique the representation and framing of the book, though I too echoed the reviews given my a few Ghanaian critics I have come upon that felt as though the novel presented a version of Ghana that is filtered through a fetishistic lense, like that of a tourist passing through and fascinated/horrified by all of its less savory customs. There is also something about the way the abuse of power (especially coming from authority figures like police) is depicted and handled with at most of flick on the risk (even if some of it was directed toward trash people who deserve it) that makes my my stomach rolls. This plus the casual misogyny to the way some women were depicted — certain details unnecessarily added that have no relevance to the story itself, the attitude toward modern Ghanaian women (thinly veiled through the pov of “backward traditional men” but not at all corrected or rebuked by the narrative), the implications that only certain kinds of women (modern, independent, well-educated, not superstitious, but not vain — “relaxed, bleached hairs and skimpy clothes”) are acceptable, the unnecessary piling on of violence toward female bodies as the only mean to move the plot forward, and the way the troiskis storyline was handled despite it being at most a tangential thread to what end up being the real murder plot — ended up making this just not an enjoyable reading experience for me.

Moreover, the way the mystery wrapped up, the revelation of who the true killer is and the motive — plus how it tied back to Dawson’s mother — actually had me starring at the screen for a min after it in in disbelief at how this turns out. It was just such a stupid twist that was not built in a way that was at all believable. It felt like it came completely out of the blue halfway through the book to negate the other plausible scenarios that the audience would have guested in advance, and the motive that drove the murder plot is utterly baffling to me and implausible — even outright stupid — to me as the reader (but maybe that’s just me as a queer person being incapable of grasping the extent straight people are willing to go for their crime of passion). Such ending and the way the story fails to build to it in any meaningful way (such that any person following along with no associations with the area would too be able to solve the mystery without access to “special knowledge” derived through Dawson’s history with the place) makes it hard for me to buy into the story.

4.5/5 stars

This was a very fun, very engrossing mystery. The writing was simple, but effective and really enhanced the setting for the story.

This book is the first in a series featuring Darko Dawson, a detective based in Accra, Ghana. In this installment, Darko must investigate a murder in the Volta region (a more rural, traditional area of the country) because he speaks the local language (Ewe). The plot focuses on the struggle between modern and traditional ways of life, most especially modern vs. traditional medicine. The "wife of the gods" of the title refers to young girls who are brought to traditional priests to be married to the gods in a traditional ceremony, and then give up their lives to cook and clean for the priests. The priests sleep with them and any children are considered to be the gods' children. The title is somewhat misleading, since this aspect of traditional culture is featured in the book but is not really the main focus. I found the mystery interesting--there were many possible suspects with different motives, although you guess midway through who the murderer must be. I also enjoyed the bits about Ghanaian culture, and am interested in reading more Ghanaian writers. However, it gets only three stars--soooo much cliche, especially regarding the main character, Darko Dawson. He's happily married but constantly ogling women, and is basically a good guy, but has a violent temper which he can't always control. He must sometimes work outside the law to do the right thing. Cue the eye rolling. I will, however, continue with the series, in case it gets better :).

One of the "read the world" books for me: Ghana.