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Nairobi Heat by Mukoma Wa Ngugi
Dec. 14th, 2017 11:14 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
A cop from Wisconsin pursues a killer through the terrifying slums of Nairobi and the memories of genocide.
In Madison, Wisconsin, it’s a big deal when African peace activist Joshua Hakizimana – who saved hundreds of people from the Rwandan genocide – accepts a position at the university to teach about “genocide and testimony”. Then a young woman is found murdered on his doorstep.
Local police Detective Ishmael – an African-American in an “extremely white” town – suspects the crime is racially motivated; the Ku Klux Klan still holds rallies there, after all. But then he gets a mysterious phone call: “If you want the truth, you must go to its source. The truth is in the past. Come to Nairobi.”
It’s the beginning of a journey that will take him to a place still vibrating from the genocide that happened around its borders, where violence is a part of everyday life, where big-oil money rules and where the local cops shoot first and ask questions later – a place, in short, where knowing the truth about history can get you killed.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Mukoma Wa Ngugi’s hard boiled crime thriller relies heavily on contrivance to keep the plot moving but is very strong both on the difficult subject of the Rwandan genocide and the complicated relationship between corporations and the charitable interests resulting from it and on what it means to be black in America and in Africa, the Kenya setting is vividly depicted and I found Ishmael to be interesting enough to want to read the sequel.
In Madison, Wisconsin, it’s a big deal when African peace activist Joshua Hakizimana – who saved hundreds of people from the Rwandan genocide – accepts a position at the university to teach about “genocide and testimony”. Then a young woman is found murdered on his doorstep.
Local police Detective Ishmael – an African-American in an “extremely white” town – suspects the crime is racially motivated; the Ku Klux Klan still holds rallies there, after all. But then he gets a mysterious phone call: “If you want the truth, you must go to its source. The truth is in the past. Come to Nairobi.”
It’s the beginning of a journey that will take him to a place still vibrating from the genocide that happened around its borders, where violence is a part of everyday life, where big-oil money rules and where the local cops shoot first and ask questions later – a place, in short, where knowing the truth about history can get you killed.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Mukoma Wa Ngugi’s hard boiled crime thriller relies heavily on contrivance to keep the plot moving but is very strong both on the difficult subject of the Rwandan genocide and the complicated relationship between corporations and the charitable interests resulting from it and on what it means to be black in America and in Africa, the Kenya setting is vividly depicted and I found Ishmael to be interesting enough to want to read the sequel.
