Nor should you think for a minute that Lagos has a corner on African noir. Akashic has Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Accra, and...
Noir comes to Africa.
Abani’s introduction promises that these 13 mostly new stories—Nnedi Okorafor’s “Showlogo” already appeared in an earlier version, as did the introduction—will reveal “much more truth at the heart of this tremendous city than any guidebook, TV show, film, or book you are likely to find.” That claim is doubly disingenuous, since (1) the whole premise of Akashic’s far-flung series, that noir is different from place to place, encourages genre tourism in exotic locales, and (2) this is, in fact, a book. So what does it reveal about Lagos? For better or worse, pretty much what you already suspected. A. Igoni Barrett’s “Just Ignore and Try to Endure” and editor Abani’s “Killer Ape” emphasize the perilously narrow frontier between humans and animals. Jude Dibia’s “What They Did That Night” and Adebola Rayo’s “What Are You Going to Do?” sketch bureaucratic corruption so deep that it’s an unblinking fact of life. The family units in Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s “The Swimming Pool,” Onyinye Ihezukwu’s “For Baby, for Three,” Uche Okonkwo’s “Eden,” and Wale Lawal’s “Joy” intensify rather than providing respite from the pervasive darkness. Chika Unigwe’s “Heaven’s Gate” and Leye Adenle’s “Uncle Sam” suggest that foreign visitors to Nigeria are advised to watch themselves and their surroundings very carefully indeed. E.C. Osondu’s “The Walking Stick” provides a reminder that some mysteries just aren’t meant to be solved. And Pemi Aguda’s “Choir Boy,” perhaps the most evocative of all these stories, presents a deeply shamed robbery victim’s portrait of an even more devastated victim. In nearly every case, noir’s ritualistic revelation of evil fits surprisingly well in a city of tragically diminished expectations.
Nor should you think for a minute that Lagos has a corner on African noir. Akashic has Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Accra, and Marrakech waiting in the wings.Pub Date: May 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-617755-23-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Akashic
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Fluke’s latest puzzler boasts 25 recipes and even more surprises.
A cruise may be romantic for Lake Eden’s Lutheran minister and his wife, but it’s murder for Hannah Swensen (Gingerbread Cookie Murder, 2010, etc.) and her pals.
Now that his childhood friend Matthew Walters has taken over his pastoral duties for two weeks, Rev. Bob Knudson can finally take his bride Claire on a belated honeymoon. Grandma Knudson’s willing to look after Matthew, just as she did when he and his cousin Paul stayed in Lake Eden as a teenager. And she’s even willing to keep an eye on Pete Nunke’s mynah, who’s staying in the rectory while Pete recovers from back surgery. Of course Hannah keeps Grandma Knudson well stocked with Butterscotch Bonanza Bars and Nutmeg Snaps from The Cookie Jar, her coffee shop. But when one of Hannah’s visits ends with the discovery of Matthew’s body face down in a piece of Red Devil’s Food Cake (recipe included), she leaves Grandma Knudson in the care of Clara and Marguerite Hollenbeck to stalk a killer. Hannah’s partner Lisa Beeseman entertains customers with tales of the grisly find while Hannah enlists sisters Andrea and Michelle to question potential suspects. They even stop at the skuzzy Eagle roadhouse to question Lenny Peske about the dollar coin he gave Lisa as a tip. Hannah’s main partner-in-crime-prevention, Norman Rhodes, on the other hand, has seemed strangely preoccupied ever since his ex-fiancée, Beverly Thorndike, joined his dental practice. Will Claire and Bob’s idyllic adventure spell romantic disaster for Lake Eden’s premier sleuth?
Fluke’s latest puzzler boasts 25 recipes and even more surprises.Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7582-3491-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Don’t be fooled by the brand-new packaging. If you liked Rosenfelt’s rollicking previous series, you’ll like this one too.
The creator of Paterson attorney Andy Carpenter’s dog-friendly mysteries launches a new series starring several of Andy’s friends and enemies, including the canine client he represented in Dachshund Through the Snow (2019), with a supporting role for Andy himself.
Judge Henry “Hatchet” Henderson, whose courtroom has provided the arena for so many of Andy’s shenanigans, is threatened with blackmail, and he wants the newly formed K Team—retired cop Corey Douglas; his canine partner, Simon Garfunkel; Andy’s fearsome investigator, Marcus Clark; and Andy’s wife, Laurie Collins—to identify and neutralize the threat, which he plans to keep confidential by paying Andy a dollar to take the case as his lawyer. At first the team’s inquiries into which of Henderson’s recent cases (the manslaughter conviction of ex-boxer John Lowry? The freeing of self-confessed embezzler Nina Williams on a legal technicality? The acquittal of Ponzi-scheming broker Drew Lockman?) provoked the blackmail lead nowhere. Then they lead to hints of a financial manipulation conspiracy on a grand scale. By the time they lead to Equi-net, an electronic communications network that handles securities trades for people who’d like to keep them private, five people have been murdered, with more slated to follow. The one place they don’t lead is to continued confidentiality, as Henderson learns to his sorrow. The net of deceptions, double-crosses, and professional assassinations gets pretty knotty, but although the conspiracy involves an awful lot of guilty parties, the gimmick behind all their criminal activity is appealingly simple. Through it all, Corey serves as an investigator and narrator every bit as ebullient as Andy and a lot more diligent. In fact, longtime fans may wonder why Rosenfelt saw the need to create a new series that follows the pattern of Andy’s 20 successful cases so closely. If he thought Paterson needed more wiseacre crime fighters, he was undoubtedly right.
Don’t be fooled by the brand-new packaging. If you liked Rosenfelt’s rollicking previous series, you’ll like this one too.Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-25719-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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