Gold of Our Fathers

Starred review from February 8, 2016
Quartey’s exceptional fourth Darko Dawson mystery (after 2014’s Murder at Cape Three Points) takes the Accra, Ghana, policeman, recently promoted to chief inspector, to the remote town of Obuasi. There he must work with the inept and undisciplined local police, whose deficiencies handicap him in investigating the murder of Bao Liu, a Chinese mine owner. Bao is but one of the many Chinese who have moved to Ghana to exploit, illegally, the country’s rich gold reserves, a practice the government is incapable of stopping, or else unwilling to. Dawson has a number of suspects to question, including Bao’s disgruntled workers, and a local who blames Bao for his son’s death. He gets an ally in a journalist, Akua Helmsley, who suspects government collusion in the environmental damage wrought by the illegal miners. The revelation of the key clue is especially clever, and fans of mysteries that offer a window into another culture will be more than satisfied. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff Literary Agency.