I think my only issues with this book were related to the fact that I just don’t like this genre very much. I read it because it was a group book for blackathon 2021 and I wanted to expand my horizons a bit, but I have come to the conclusion that detective thrillers just don’t do anything for me.

That being said, if I was going to enjoy any detective thriller, it would be this one. Darko Dawson is a great protagonist- he’s smart and resourceful but also compassionate and empathetic. The setting of a rural Ghanaian village with deeply superstitious and distrustful residents was a great way of setting up the tension and mystery of the murder. Add into that the fact that the victim was an AIDS worker trying to offer treatment and prevention (including handing out condoms) meant that just about everyone in town had a motive and there are plenty of twists. The added mystery of what happened to Darko’s mother when he was a child was surprising, and I wasn’t expecting it to be as compelling as it was, or as big a part of the story as it was, but it was truly integrated into the character and was a big part of the reason why Darko was the way he was and why he reacted to the case in the way he did.

I just felt that the story moved very slowly- but that’s probably down to the fact that I don’t like mysteries very much and I always just want to skip straight to the end.