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Summary
Summary
For fans of Alexander McCall Smith, a debut mystery set in West Africa that introduces a marvelous detective and a culturally rich community Detective Inspector Darko Dawson, a good family man and a remarkably intuitive sleuth, is sent to the village of Ketanu--the site of his mother's disappearance many years ago--to solve the murder of an accomplished young AIDS worker. While battling his own anger issues and concerns for his ailing son, Darko explores the motivations and secrets of the residents of Ketanu. It soon becomes clear that in addition to solving a recent murder, he is about to unravel the shocking truth about his mother's disappearance. Kwei Quartey's sparkling debut novel introduces readers to a rich cast of characters, including the Trokosi--young women called Wives of the Gods--who, in order to bring good fortune to their families, are sent to live with fetish priests. Set in Ghana, with the action moving back and forth between the capital city of Accra and a small village in the Volta Region,Wife of the Godsbrings the culture and beauty of its setting brilliantly to life. From the Hardcover edition.
Author Notes
Kwei Quartey is a crime fiction writer and physician. He practiced medicine for more than 20 years while working as a writer. Dr. Quartey balances the two professions by dedicating the early morning hours to writing before beginning a day in his clinic.
Dr. Quartey attended medical school at Howard University in Washington, D.C. In 1990, he began practicing medicine in California with HealthCare Partners. Dr. Quartey later founded the facility's wound care center while working as an urgent care physician.
As a crime fiction writer, Kwei Quartey made the Los Angeles Times Bestseller List in 2009. Having published 2 books in An Inspector Darko Dawson Mystery Series, Wife of the Gods and Children of the Street, the release of a third novel in the series, Murder at Cape Three Points, is scheduled in March 2014. Death at the Voyager Hotel, a mystery e-novella not belonging to the series, was published July 2013.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Quartey's winning debut, a police procedural set in modern Ghana, introduces gifted detective Darko Dawson. Dawson leaves the capital city of Accra to investigate a murder in remote Ketanu, where traditional beliefs about the spirit world still reign. He finds no lack of suspects, as the beautiful victim was a married man's impatient mistress and a controversial crusader against AIDS and trokosi, the ancient custom in which young girls become slave wives to local priests. Ketanu is also the village from which Dawson's mother disappeared years before, and his visits awaken a buried need to solve that mystery as well. Dawson is a wonderful creation, a man as rich with contradictions as the Ghana Quartey so delightfully evokes-a loving husband and father with anger management issues on the job and a personal fondness for marijuana. Despite a not hugely exciting denouement, readers will be eager for the next installment in what one hopes will be a long series. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Quartey's crisp, engrossing debut introduces readers to Darko Dawson, a talented and temperamental detective inspector in Accra, capital city of Ghana. As the novel opens, DI Dawson is called out to the remote village of Ketanu to investigate the suspicious death of Gladys Mensah, a medical student and passionate AIDS worker. Was Gladys killed for her professional ambition (she had a run-in with a local healer who was convinced she was stealing his potions) or because of an unrequited romance with a married man? Returning to Ketanu is a deeply emotional experience for DI Dawson, whose mother disappeared there more than two decades before. He immediately senses the hostility of the Ketanu police, who resent having a big-city officer in their midst. He is also unsettled by the area's tolerance of the custom of trokosi, in which beleaguered families atone for sins by marrying off their young daughters to fetish priests. Quartey, a Ghana-born medical doctor who now lives in Los Angeles, renders a compelling cast of characters inhabiting a world precariously perched between old and new. Fans of McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels will relish the opportunity to discover yet another intriguing area of Africa.--Block, Allison Copyright 2009 Booklist
Library Journal Review
A medical resident working with Ghana's Ministry of Health's AIDS program is murdered, and Detective Inspector Darko Dawson has been asked to investigate. Not only is he an excellent detective but he has family ties to the village. Alas, nothing about this case is simple, and the growing rift between Dawson's modern police work and a local inspector's refusal to move past traditionally accepted beliefs jeopardizes a successful arrest. The uncommon grace and style of the writing will engender comparisons with Alexander McCall Smith's Botswana stories, but this novel has more grit. Darko is a sleuth full of contradictions, a tough defender of justice and truth who is also a habitual pot smoker. Yet it's the crossover between Dark's professional life and personal issues that helps drive the plot and makes his story more relatable. This well-crafted first novel is a smart purchase for all libraries and a great choice for a book club discussion. [Library marketing; for an African mystery readalike, see also Michael Stanley's The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu.-Ed.]-Stacey Hayman, Rocky River P.L., OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Chapter One INSPECTOR MAX FITI had great significance in a place that had little. He was the head of police in Ketanu, a small town in the Adaklu-Anyigbe District of Ghana's Volta Region. All he had was a small police station as ragged as a stray dog, two constables, and an old police vehicle that ran erratically, but when there was trouble, people turned to Fiti. Case in point: Charles Mensah, a fortyish man with a painfully thin body and a bulbous head like a soldier termite, had just come into his office this morning to report his sister missing. "When did you last see Gladys?" Fiti asked. "Yesterday afternoon, around three," Charles said. "Just before she left for Bedome." "She went to Bedome? To do what?" "You know she's a volunteer with the Ghana Health Service AIDS outreach. She goes to different villages to teach and so on." "Aha, yes." The village of Bedome was east of Ketanu on the other side of the forest. "When she didn't come back home yesterday evening," Charles continued, "I thought it was strange, so I rang her mobile and left a message. She never called back and I started to get worried, so then I rang Timothy Sowah, the director of the AIDS program, and he said he too had been unable to reach her on the mobile." "Maybe she went to another village where the reception is poor?" Fiti suggested. "Mr. Sowah told me Bedome was the only place she was scheduled to visit," Charles replied. "Are you sure she actually got to Bedome? I mean, not that I'm saying something bad happened on the way, but-" "I understand what you mean, Inspector. I got up early this morning-I couldn't sleep anyway-and I went to Bedome to check. Everyone told me yes, that Gladys had been there yesterday and she had left some time before sunset to go back to Ketanu." True, less than twenty-four hours had passed, Fiti reflected, but he agreed this was all very troubling. Gladys Mensah was a serious girl- reliable, solid, and smart. And beautiful. Very, very lovely indeed. So, yes, Fiti took this seriously. He jotted some notes on a legal pad, sitting slightly sideways because his rotund belly prevented him from pulling up close to his desk. Fiti was approaching the half-century mark in age, and most of the weight he had recently been gaining had gone to his midsection. "Something else I want to tell you," Charles said. "Maybe it's nothing, but while I was on my way to Bedome this morning, I spoke to some farmers who have their plots near the forest. They told me that while they were working yesterday evening, they saw Samuel Boateng talking to Gladys as she was on her way back to Ketanu." Inspector Fiti's eyes narrowed. "Is that so?" He didn't like the Boateng family much. Samuel, the second oldest boy, was a ruffian who had once stolen a packet of PK chewing gum from a market stall. "Have you asked Samuel or his father about it?" Fiti said. "We don't speak to the Boatengs," Charles said tersely. Fiti pressed his lips together. "Don't worry, I'll go and see them myself." Chapter Two EFIA WAS A TROKOSI, which meant that she belonged to the gods. Eighteen years ago, her uncle Kudzo beat a man to death with a branch from a baobab tree. Over the next several months, bad things began to happen to the family: crops failed because of drought, Efia's mother had a stroke, and a cousin drowned in a river. Everyone in the family panicked. Even though Uncle Kudzo had been imprisoned for his crime, it appeared the gods were punishing the family for what he had done. Excerpted from Wife of the Gods: A Novel by Kwei Quartey All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
