ANGELS 37

In Fullilove’s thriller, a man haunted by the disappearance of his daughter agrees to investigate the death of a young woman in Uganda.

Billy Senchant is an American investigator with a reputation for successfully taking on difficult cases in Africa. When a wealthy American hires Billy to clear the name of his son, who has been named the lead suspect in the murder of a young woman named Nola, Billy agrees to travel to Uganda to investigate her death. Nola, who was working for the United Nations as a contractor, reminds Billy of his daughter, Jennifer, who went missing in Kenya two years earlier (she is presumed dead) and also worked in the aid and nonprofit field. This seems like a suicide mission—Uganda is fraught with corruption and recently ravaged by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army, but Billy, diagnosed with cancer, divorced, and missing his daughter, is willing to risk it (“do you want justice? One last, heroic act, perhaps?”). When Billy arrives in Uganda, he soon discovers that things aren’t as they seem. Nola lived lavishly until her death, despite her meager pay, and seemed to have connections to an array of institutions (including the LRA). Billy’s investigation is complicated further when he meets Brooke Reynolds, a woman claiming to work for the U.S. State Department, who brings him news that his daughter might still be alive. Fullilove braids together flashbacks from the vantage of both Nola and Jennifer. This material is challenging to read—the author doesn’t hold back when describing the violent cruelty that the Lord’s Resistance Army inflicts on Nola, her family, and the children they kidnap to serve as child soldiers. Fullilove’s prose is clear and confident, and the narrative builds to a devastating final scene that renders the novel more memorable and affecting than the run-of-the-mill thriller. The politics are complicated, and can leave the reader a little disoriented, but once all the key players are established, it’s a gripping mystery built upon Uganda’s terrifying recent past.

The emotional core and dangerous setting elevate this heart-pounding neo-noir.