de Kwei Quartey
Just as things at work are slowing down for PI Emma Djan, an old friend of her boss’s asks for help locating his missing daughter in Accra. According to her father, Ngozi had a bright future ahead of her when she became secretive and withdrawn. Suddenly, all she wanted to do was be with her handsome new beau, Femi, instead of attending law school in the fall. So when she disappears from her parents’ house in Nigeria in the middle of the night, they immediately suspect Femi was behind it and have reason to believe the pair has fled to Ghana.
The case escalates quickly when Femi is found murdered at an opulent hotel in Accra, but there are no signs of Ngozi at the scene. Emma knows if she’s to have any hope of finding Ngozi, she must learn more about Femi, so she digs into his past and discovers he was part of a network of sex traffickers operating across West Africa. Fearing the worst, Emma resorts to dangerous undercover work in a desperate attempt to track Ngozi down before it’s too late.
Just as things at work are slowing down for PI Emma Djan, an old friend of her boss’s asks for help locating his missing daughter in Accra. According to her father, Ngozi had a bright future ahead of her when she became secretive and withdrawn. Suddenly, all she wanted to do was be with her handsome new beau, Femi, instead of attending law school in the fall. So when she disappears from her parents’ house in Nigeria in the middle of the night, they immediately suspect Femi was behind it and have reason to believe the pair has fled to Ghana.
The case escalates quickly when Femi is found murdered at an opulent hotel in Accra, but there are no signs of Ngozi at the scene. Emma knows if she’s to have any hope of finding Ngozi, she must learn more about Femi, so she digs into his past and discovers he was part of a network of sex traffickers operating across West Africa. Fearing the worst, Emma resorts to dangerous undercover work in a desperate attempt to track Ngozi down before it’s too late.
Critiques-
-
September 1, 2022
In this latest in a Shamus-winning, Edgar-nominated series, based in Accra, Ghana, PI Emma Djan is searching for the daughter of her boss's old friend. Ngozi was a brilliant law student on course for law school until she became all wrapped up with her new boyfriend, Femi, and vanishes from her parents' home in Nigeria, evidently headed for Accra. And what Ngozi discovers about Femi isn't good.
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
-
December 12, 2022
Quartey’s intriguing third Emma Djan investigation (after 2021’s Sleep Well, My Lady) finds the Ghanaian PI, an operative for the Sowah Private Investigators Agency, leading the search for Ngozi Ojukwu, a prominent diplomat’s 18-year-old daughter, who was about to start law school and disappeared from her parents’ house in Lagos, Nigeria, months earlier under suspicious circumstances. Ngozi’s parents believe she ran off with 28-year-old Femi Adebanjo, the Ghanaian Nigerian manager of a hotel and high-class brothel in Accra. The stakes rise when Femi turns up murdered in his upscale home with Ngozi nowhere to be found. It turns out Femi was engaged in human trafficking, and Emma subsequently goes undercover as a sex worker to get a lead on Ngozi’s fate. The somewhat leisurely paced investigation builds to a satisfactory resolution. Well-defined characters complement the clever narrative structure, and dialogue in West African pidgin dialect (for which a glossary is provided) adds realism. Not just those looking for a detailed picture of modern West African life, the book’s main strength, will be rewarded. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff & Assoc. -
December 15, 2022
Emma Djan, of the Sowah Private Investigators Agency in the Ghanaian capital of Accra, goes looking for a missing girl and finds a whole lot more. Retired Nigerian ambassador Nnamdi Ojukwu comes to see his old friend Yemo Sowah because his 18-year-old daughter has disappeared from his house. The former diplomat isn't sure whether he's more scared that Ngozi has been kidnapped or that she's run off with her boyfriend, unsuitable hotel manager Femi Adebanjo, who's 10 years older. As it happens, both theories hit on part of the truth. Soon after Femi is discovered shot in the head, Quartey launches an extended series of flashbacks that show Femi forming a partnership with his old school friend Cliffy as "travel agents" who talk people into emigrating from Ghana to countries that promise greater opportunities, lying to them about their travel arrangements and the accommodations they can expect at their destinations, and charging them top dollar. Things get worse when Femi breaks things off with Cliffy and throws in his lot with hotelier Awuni Prince Awuni and his partner Janet Glover, who runs the Alligator, the headquarters for a number of sex workers who haven't chosen this line of work of their own free will. More deaths will follow, and it seems less and less likely that Emma and DI Boateng, of the Ghana Police Service, will find Ngozi alive. As Emma herself eventually acknowledges, she doesn't distinguish herself as a detective this time around; the tale's intricately layered structure both generates its mystery and provokes its solution. Quartey once again finds piercing social pain beneath what looks like a routine case.COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-
December 1, 2022
This is Ghanaian PI Emma Djan's third investigation (after Sleep Well, My Lady, 2021), and Emma is in high gear on a case involving human trafficking and sexual slavery. Her firm has been hired to find Ngozi Ojukwu, daughter of a Nigerian high commissioner, who is believed to have run away to Accra. She was involved in a whirlwind romance with a young man named Femi, who turns out to be the manager of a local brothel. Femi is found murdered, and it seems he left a whole lot of ""wahala"" (trouble) back in Nigeria that may have caught up with him. There is no trace of Ngozi. There is considerably more violence here than in the earlier books of the series, and a difficult amount of abject cruelty, but both are integral to horrors that need to be acknowledged. The backstory is riveting, although somewhat lengthy, and it leads up to what is a truly amazing ending. Emma's fans will also enjoy meeting her new beau, Courage, who serves in the SWAT division of the national police.COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-
January 1, 2023
Told from different characters' viewpoints, Quartey's third Emma Djan title (after Sleep Well, My Lady) is another singular and thrilling novel set across West Africa. This time, PI Emma is charged with finding a missing young Nigerian woman, Ngozi, whose family suspects she has eloped with her older boyfriend Femi. Tracking down Ngozi and Femi drags Emma into a world of prostitution and sex trafficking. Femi turns out to be a con artist who convinces victims that they are being smuggled into Germany or Italy to begin new lives while in reality selling them in a trafficking network. It comes to light that Femi may also be swindling his partners and has enemies who would not hesitate to torture and murder to keep their money flowing. As Emma goes undercover to get to the truth, she puts herself directly in the path of Femi's enemies. Readers should be aware that this novel's plot centers on prostitution and sex trafficking and contains sexual violence. VERDICT Since book one, The Lost American, Emma's character development has progressed to create a more dimensional heroine worth rooting for. Good for fans of African fiction and crime fiction.--Jen Funk
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
