I've been obsessed with crime fiction from Africa for two decades now, ever since I lived in South Africa. No matter what crime problems we have in the USA, I remember thinking, it's not like this. I still feel freedom to go for long walks everyday, in most neighborhoods. I don't feel like I'm trapped behind electric fences with alarms that make me "safe" but also trap me inside. The crime problems in South Africa intrigued me, and investigating their policing problems was a safe way to analyze our own policing problems in the USA at some distance. Besides, as appalling as the crime problem might be in South Africa, there are so many similarities between their society and ours, it felt like a great way to understand our own system. A decade ago, I wrote an article for World Literature Today on the politics of crime novels in South Africa, which was republished in Utne magazine and which you can read here. I've of course expanded my range to crime novels from around the continent, all of them delightful, well-written, and different from your standard American crime novel.
Here's a selection of the best crime novels in honor of #readingAfrica 2024. If you love crime novels, buckle up and go along for the ride.
And So I Roar by Abi Daré
Publisher: Dutton Buy here
When Tia accidentally overhears a whispered conversation between her mother—terminally ill and lying in a hospital bed in Port Harcourt, Nigeria—and her aunt, the repercussions will send her on a desperate quest to uncover a secret her mother has been hiding for nearly two decades. Back home in Lagos a few days later, Adunni, a plucky fourteen-year-old runaway, is lying awake in Tia’s guest room. Having escaped from her rural village in a desperate bid to seek a better future, she’s finally found refuge with Tia, who has helped her enroll in school. It’s always been Adunni’s dream to get an education, and she’s bursting with excitement.
Suddenly, there’s a horrible knocking at the front gate. . . .It’s only the beginning of a harrowing ordeal that will see Tia forced to make a terrible choice between protecting Adunni or finally learning the truth behind the secret her mother has hidden from her. And Adunni will learn that her “louding voice,” as she calls it, is more important than ever, as she must advocate to save not only herself but all the young women of her home village, Ikati.
If she succeeds, she may transform Ikati into a place where girls are allowed to claim the bright futures they deserve—and shout their stories to the world.
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Vintage Books
Korede’s sister Ayoola is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead, stabbed through the heart with Ayoola’s knife. Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood (bleach, bleach, and more bleach), the best way to move a body (wrap it in sheets like a mummy), and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures to Instagram when she should be mourning her “missing” boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she’s exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she’s willing to go to protect her.
Unfinished Business by Leye Adenle
Publisher: Cassava Republic
Dead pastors. Corrupt government officials. And over 100 million dollars unaccounted for. Amaka is back in this electrifying third instalment in the Amaka Thrillers series. A frantic phone call interrupts Amaka Mbadiwe’s new life in London. A renowned pastor has been assassinated in his hotel room while one of her girls, Funke, hid naked and terrified inside a sofa. Amaka is headed back to Lagos, and to a new world of private jets, money-laundering and mega-churches. With her trusted ally Police Inspector Ibrahim out of the country, and the hostile Inspector Musa breathing down her neck, Amaka must race against the clock to rescue Funke and untangle this twisted web of religion, power and politics.
The Lazarus Effect by H.J. Golakai
Publisher: Cassava Republic
Voinjama Johnson is an investigative journalist for the Cape Town magazine Urban. Her life is a mess and Vee’s been seeing things: a teenage girl in a red hat that goes hand-in-hand with the debilitating episodes she is loath to call ‘panic attacks’.
When Vee spots a photo of the girl from her hallucinations at a local hospital, she launches an investigation, under the pretext of writing an article about missing children. With the help of her oddball assistant Chloe Bishop, she’s soon delving into the secrets of the fractured Fourie and Paulsen families. What happened to Jacqui Paulsen, who left home two years ago and hasn’t been seen since?
The Lagos Wife by Vanessa Walters
Publisher: Atria Books
Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a handsome husband, a palatial house in the heart of Lagos, and a glamorous group of friends. She left gloomy London and a troubled family past behind for sunny Lagos, becoming part of the Nigerwives—a community of foreign women married to Nigerian men.But when Nicole disappears without a trace after a boat trip, the cracks in her alleged perfect life start to show. As the investigation turns up nothing but dead ends, her auntie Claudine decides to take matters into her own hands. Armed with only a cell phone and a plane ticket to Nigeria, she digs into her niece’s life and uncovers a hidden side filled with dark secrets, isolation, and even violence. But the more she discovers about Nicole, the more Claudine’s own buried history threatens to come to light.
Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Some would call Detective Benny Griessel a legend. Others would call him a drunk. Either way, he has trodden on too many toes over the years ever to reach the top of the promotion ladder, and now he concentrates on staying sober and mentoring the new generation of crime fighters -- mixed race, Xhosa and Zulu. But when an American backpacker disappears in Cape Town, panicked politicians know who to call: Benny has just thirteen hours to save the girl, save his career, and crack open a conspiracy, which threatens the whole country.
Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery by Sally Andrew
Publisher: Ecco
Tannie Maria (Tannie meaning Auntie, the respectful Afrikaans address for a woman older than you) is a middle-aged widow who likes to cook—and eat. She shares her culinary love as a recipe columnist for the local paper—until The Gazette decides its readers are hungrier for advice on matters of the heart rather than ideas for lunch and dinner.
Tannie Maria doesn’t like the change, but soon discovers she has a knack—and a passion—for helping people. Of course she shares her recipes and culinary advice whenever she can! Assisting other people with their problems, Tannie Maria is eventually forced to face her own issues, especially when the troubles of those she helps touch on the pain of her past, like a woman desperate to escape her abusive husband. When the woman is murdered, Tannie Maria becomes dangerously entwined in the investigation, despite the best efforts of one striking detective determined to keep her safe. Suddenly, this practical, down-to-earth woman is involved in something much more sinister than perfecting her chocolate cake recipe . . .
The Quality of Mercy by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu
Publisher: Catalyst Press
Everyone saw Emil Coetzee drive into the bush the day the ceasefire was announced. But nobody saw him drive out of it. So begins the investigation of Spokes Moloi, the first black chief inspector in the City of Kings, who on the eve of his retirement is handed one final crime: the possible murder of Mr. Coetzee, the notorious head of the Organization of Domestic Affairs, who disappeared on the same day the country's independence beckoned. In investigating Emil’s disappearance, Spokes' path collides with an assortment of witnesses with the best and worst of intentions—including a pair of corrupt investigators with an eye towards framing the guerrilla icon Golide Gumede for Emil’s murder, and the insatiable public, infatuated with Emil and unable to come to terms with the fact that the future they had so long anticipated had, at last, arrived. With a nation in flux and his beloved wife Loveness forever present in his mind, Spokes’ investigation leads him back to the very beginning— and gives him one last chance to solve the twenty-year-old murder case that determined both the path of his life and destiny of his country.
Review by Jessica Powers, publisher Catalyst Press
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