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Femi Kayode's Top Crime Novels Set in Africa

Posted on 29th June 2022 by Mark Skinner

A stunningly smart and psychologically acute thriller steeped in the heat and atmosphere of a Nigerian university town, Femi Kayode's Lightseekers is as much a whydunit as a whodunit. In this exclusive piece, Femi highlights four of his favourite thrillers set in Africa.    

When Trouble Sleeps by Leye Adenle (Nigeria)

Mention crime fiction from Nigeria and Leye Adenle’s name will inevitably come up. I was a fan of his debut novel, Easy Motion Tourist (the first in the Amaka series), but When Trouble Sleeps achieves the near impossible: a sequel that tops the pilot. Amaka Mbadiwe’s mission to save the sex workers of Lagos means trouble follows her everywhere. When Chief Ojo is picked as a gubernatorial candidate, Amaka becomes the only one standing between him and political victory. Her knowledge of his shenanigans at Harem, a sex club on the outskirts of Lagos, must not be made public. Dogged by determined hired assassins, Amaka becomes caught in a game of survival that demands all her wit and street smart saviness. A gritty thriller set in Lagos is almost guaranteed to be compelling, but Adenle delivers smooth, razor-sharp prose with rapid fire dialogue that keeps the action going.

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Relentlessly exciting and formidably gritty, the second instalment of Adenle's masterful Amaka series sees our redoubtable heroine determined to stop a vicious and corrupt candidate becoming governor of Lagos.
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Five Nights Before the Summit by Chipanta Mukuka (Zambia)

I met the author (virtually) at a literary festival and what a delight he was. His measured tones and deep insights into politics and history made me envious. When he started talking about his book, I went online right there and then and bought Five Nights Before the Summit. Set in 1979, a couple of days before Zambia hosts the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit to be held in Africa, a white British couple are brutally murdered. With Queen Elizabeth set to arrive in days, the Zambian government scramble to bring the culprits to book and avoid a diplomatic standoff. But first they have to find the killers. Enter Detective Maxwell Chanda (who reminds me of the author: same measured tones and attention to detail). The detective has the task of piecing a complex trail of evidence together within five days. The pressure is intense; from the Zambian and British government. If you like a procedural that is rich in character, detailed in context and steeped in the not too far off post-colonial history of an African country, this book delivers.

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When a white British couple in Zambia are killed a few days before a state visit from Queen Elizabeth II, Detective Maxwell Chanda faces a race against time to bring the culprit to book in this gripping, expertly paced thriller.
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Making Wolf by Tade Thompson (West Africa)

It started with a harmless lie. Weston Kogi works in security at a supermarket in London and returns to his fictitious home country in West Africa for a funeral. An overindulgence in good food and beer led Weston to claim he is a homicide detective in London. Such an impressive resume led to Weston’s kidnap by a rebel group who insist he must use his skills to solve the murder of a local hero, Papa Busi. With Weston’s life literally on the line, the pressure is on to solve a crime that might push the nation of Alcacia into a civil war. Weston is caught between two homicidal rebel factions, a shadowy state secret police, a morally ambivalent society on the brink of total chaos. Pumping action meets frightening realities in this compulsive thriller. Through it all, Tade Thompson paints a vivid picture of an African nation that is sadly, all too familiar.

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Witty, compelling and boasting a brilliantly likeable protagonist, Thompson's tale of a London store detective who finds himself in deadly peril after claiming to his West African family that he is a homicide detective is unputdownable reading from first page to last.
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The Missing American by Kwei Quartey (Ghana)

This is the first in the Emma Djan series by acclaimed crime author, Kwei Quartey. Emma’s life is upended when she takes on a missing person’s case after being disgraced out of the police force. She is charged by the son of an American to find his father who had come to Accra to meet the love of his life, who he met on the internet. Stories built around internet scams targeting apparently naïve westerners generally make my eyes roll. But in The Missing American, Quartey delivers a nuanced story about Ghana, with colorful characters that take us through a maze of secrets, fetish priests and rampant corruption. Lush with vivid descriptions of Accra that will make you call your travel agent in a beat, The Missing American is a tense and riveting crime story that delivers on every level. Superb writing, a disillusioned female detective, a fish out of water client, and a city that refuses to yield its secrets. What’s there not to love?

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From the author of the acclaimed Darko series comes an immersive story of corruption and deadly secrets in Accra as a young American searches for his vanished father, the victim of an online scam.
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