{"id":1283,"date":"2014-03-01T13:08:06","date_gmt":"2014-03-01T19:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=1283"},"modified":"2014-03-01T13:08:06","modified_gmt":"2014-03-01T19:08:06","slug":"kwei-quartey-murder-at-cape-three-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/kwei-quartey-murder-at-cape-three-points\/","title":{"rendered":"Kwei Quartey: Murder at Cape Three Points"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The return of Ghanaian detective Darko Dawson is a very welcome one.\u00a0 I enjoyed Quartey\u2019s first two novels in the series very much and I\u2019m grateful to Soho Press for giving him a new home.\u00a0 Quartey, born in Ghana to an American and a Ghanian, has ended up in L.A. but his heart remains in Ghana and it\u2019s on his sleeve as he relates the adventures of Detective Darko.<\/p>\n

\"Murder-at-Cape-Three-Points\"<\/a>Darko is happily married and has a son with a heart condition \u2013 in the first two books his condition was worsening, and the Dawsons had no way to pay for surgery.\u00a0 That problem has been overcome as the book opens with little Hosiah recovering well with his anxious parents looking on.\u00a0 That\u2019s a relief for all (including this reader) but Darko is called away from his son\u2019s bedside before his leave is up to attend to a case in another city.<\/p>\n

Darko is CID in Accra, the capital, and a citizen in nearby Takoradi has petitioned for the now months old murder of her beloved aunt and uncle to be re-examined by a higher up in the police department.\u00a0 Darko is the man.\u00a0 It\u2019s a heartbreaking case: the Smith-Aidoos, by all accounts a well liked and respected couple, were found murdered in a canoe, Mr. Smith-Aidoo missing his head.\u00a0 The petitioner, the Smith-Aidoos niece, is a physician and credits them with her upbringing and education.<\/p>\n

The case is complex and seems to have several possible resolutions \u2013 one is connected to big oil in Cape Three Points, and one is a tangle of family hurts, resentments and long ago curses.\u00a0 Darko and his able assistant pursue the oil course which gives Quartey a chance to illustrate a slice of Ghanian economics from the very top to almost the very bottom.\u00a0 The key is where the Smith-Aidoos, a connected couple politically and every other way, fit into the social and economic strata.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also an undercurrent of juju or witchcraft \u2013 something Darko can\u2019t quite discount as the death of Mr. Smith-Aidoo in particular was so brutal.\u00a0 Quartey\u2019s ability to portray almost an entire culture is top notch, as is his hand with character and place.\u00a0 He can really take a setting and place you into it.\u00a0 One of the strongest scenes finds Darko taking a class on how to escape a helicopter that crash lands into the ocean.\u00a0 You won\u2019t forget it anytime soon.<\/p>\n

Darko himself is a wonderful character.\u00a0 He has some weaknesses \u2013 a fondness for weed and beautiful women \u2013 but he\u2019s a good husband and father and he loves his family.\u00a0 He also has a remarkable condition called Synesthesia, where he can hear a voice and if the person is lying, it causes an actual physical sensation in Darko (a useful attribute for a detective).\u00a0 Darko is very much in the Holmes model as he uses deduction and careful reasoning to solve his cases, and not a clue is left out.\u00a0 You yourself may miss Quartey\u2019s sleight of hand as you read.\u00a0 This was a favorite new series of mine when the earlier books were published, and I\u2019m delighted to see the series return, as Quartey has an original and authentic voice, and his character of Darko Dawson is a real classic.\u00a0 Check him out: you\u2019ll be charmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The return of Ghanaian detective Darko Dawson is a very welcome one.\u00a0 I enjoyed Quartey\u2019s first two novels in the series very much and I\u2019m grateful to Soho Press for giving him a new home.\u00a0 Quartey, born in Ghana to an American and a Ghanian, has ended up in L.A. but his heart remains in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-1283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1285,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions\/1285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}