THE CASE OF THE ASHANTI GOLD

by Clifford Mason ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 26, 1985

Joe Cinquez--50, black, Harlem-savvy, with a vaguely raffish past and a brand-new private-eye's license--is a narrator-hero with all sorts of possibilities for a distinctive mystery series. Unfortunately, however, Joe makes his debut in a ludicrous, amateurishly plotted cartoon-adventure, heavy on gratuitous mayhem and absurd convolution. The complicated nonsense begins when Joe goes home to find the decapitated head of his ne'er-do-well brother Phil--soon after witnessing a mysterious Washington Square encounter between Phil and a young African. Moments later, a Zulu warrior appears and tries to spear Joe to the wall! And though Joe survives this attack, he'll be in mortal danger about once every hour from then on--as he tangles with African diplomats, lethal bodyguards, and femme fatales in his search for Phil's killer. What's all the fuss about? Well, it seems that Phil was part of a scheme involving the theft of the holy golden stool, power-symbol of the Ashanti kingdom. (NATO, South Africa, and the entire Third World have a stake in the outcome.) So Joe, who manages to take possession of both the real stool and a superb fake, is in for a shapeless series of chases, shoot-outs, escapes, spear-battles, and booby-traps--leading up to pages and pages of tedious, contrived explanations. (A typical bit of musing along the way: ""Rose had killed Olowosoyo. Zakes had killed both Roger and Smith-Mokaye, but at least they had been combat deaths. Phil, Darlene, and Earl were all premeditated killings. So were Signe and now Jake. I had killed Westerbrook. Talk about a bloody mess."") Like the plotting, Joe's narration is repetitious, sloppy, badly in need of an editor. Still, whenever he sticks to life-sized situations, there's a strong flavoring of character and atmosphere here. (Joe's visit to his down-and-out cousin Earl in Philadelphia is a fine, funny set-piece.) And if Mason can be persuaded to give up B-movie folderol for Harlem realism, Joe could conceivably develop into a plausible series hero.

Pub Date: Dec. 26, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION