{"id":3921,"date":"2021-01-17T07:10:35","date_gmt":"2021-01-17T15:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=3921"},"modified":"2021-01-17T07:10:35","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T15:10:35","slug":"kwei-quartey-sleep-well-my-lady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/kwei-quartey-sleep-well-my-lady\/","title":{"rendered":"Kwei Quartey: Sleep Well, My Lady"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This is the follow up to Quartey\u2019s series debut, The Missing American, <\/em>which, while excellent, was at times almost needlessly complicated.\u00a0 The star of the book in every way was Emma Djan, who lives in Ghana and has left the police force to work for a private investigation firm.\u00a0 She\u2019s a fully realized, complex, nuanced and charming character, and as a reader you are with her at every plot turn.<\/p>\n

This book felt much stronger to me, the plot was more streamlined (though still entertainingly tricky), and while Quartey always infused his stories with some real heartbreak he is also a wonderful pure mystery writer.\u00a0 The clues are fair and well laid.<\/p>\n

Set in Accra, Ghana, the Ghanaian culture is a character in the book as much as any of the people in the story.\u00a0 Ghana sounds like an incredibly lively and vital place with a police department that\u2019s more interested in solving cases than finding the actual perpetrators of the crime. \u00a0Emma\u2019s boss, Mr. Sowah, is also a former cop, and he is excellent at working the system.<\/p>\n

Quartey is also outstanding at making you truly feel for the victim.\u00a0 In both books the victim becomes a fully realized person, thanks to Quartey\u2019s use of a timeline that dips forward and backward.\u00a0 As the book opens the beautiful Lady Araba, a fashion designer, is missed from her fashion show at the opening of Accra fashion week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Lady Araba\u2019s gardener has just discovered her dead in her bedroom.\u00a0 Quartey skillfully illuminates Araba\u2019s backstory, as well as her relationship with Augustus Seeza, a well-known TV talk show host (known for asking penetrating and difficult questions of his subjects).\u00a0 Augustus, unfortunately, is also a raging alcoholic, and Kwartey\u2019s explication of his life and the toll it takes on those around him, from his parents to his ex wife to Lady Araba, is heartbreakingly and realistically depicted.<\/p>\n

Emma\u2019s agency is hired to look into Araba\u2019s murder by her aunt, who is sure the wrong person (Araba\u2019s driver) is in jail.\u00a0 She is sure Augustus is the real culprit.\u00a0 As Mr. Sowah deploys his agents to a number of different places, Emma finds herself backstage at Accra\u2019s fledgling forensic lab. \u00a0The clues she is able to uncover both at the lab and through a talk with a coroner help her to solve the case.<\/p>\n

Like any golden age writer, Kwartey\u2019s suspect pool is tight, and he deflects suspicion from one to another with ease and skill.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to suspect each one in turn as you try and figure out who really killed Lady Araba.<\/p>\n

Kwartey has a spectacular voice and his Ghanaian setting is not only unusual, it gives him plenty of scope.\u00a0 The first book was about internet scammers, who are decidedly poorer and working class, while this book is set within Accra\u2019s more privileged class.\u00a0 I think the sky is the limit for future installments as he has a wide canvas, a deft hand with a plot, and a real genius with character.\u00a0 Emma Djan is someone to treasure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the follow up to Quartey\u2019s series debut, The Missing American, which, while excellent, was at times almost needlessly complicated.\u00a0 The star of the book in every way was Emma Djan, who lives in Ghana and has left the police force to work for a private investigation firm.\u00a0 She\u2019s a fully realized, complex, nuanced … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[495,493,492,11,462,166],"class_list":["post-3921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-accra-fashion-week","tag-emma-djan","tag-ghana","tag-international","tag-kwei-quartey","tag-soho-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3921"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3925,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921\/revisions\/3925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}