Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Rich, complex and earthy. It sounds more like I'm trying to describe a wine but seriously, this is beautiful, vivid storytelling. At it's simplest this is a whodunnit, but there's so much more going on... family and culture, myths and legends.

"Sonokrom is a place that has not changed for hundreds of years; the men and women speak the language of the forest, drink aphrodisiacs with their palm wine and commune with the spirits of their ancestors. However, the woman's intrusion and ensuing events lead to an invasion from Accra, the capital city, spearheaded by Kayo; a young forensic pathologist convinced that scientific logic can shatter even the most inexplicable of mysteries."

Warning: cruelty to woman, cruelty to children… (more)

A young scientist and forensic expert, Kayo, is coerced into investigating some foul smelling, presumably human remains found in a small village far away from the Ghanaian capital of Accra when other policemen are baffled by the villagers' lack of cooperation. A newly-minted forensic investigator, a genteel and polite Ghanaian man educated in England, is forcibly coopted by the chief of police (who, obviously, has his own agenda in pursuing the case). Kayo and his assigned partner Garba use take a more traditional and respectful approach and gain the village's confidence, especially the great hunter and the medicine-man. The book's strength is the contrast between modern forensic science and traditional tribal values and storytelling, and the breakthroughs in the case are from both approaches. However, the pidgin of Ghana is hard to follow and shame on the publisher for using a website, rather than printing a glossary to help readers. Shameful.


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There seems to be a great idea behind this text, a fusion on several levels. The dramatic contrast in the social fabric of modern Kenya is reduplicated in the narrative, a detective story that aspires to incorporate, even reconcile the split by offering a double perspective, coexistence without contradiction.

Sadly, the execution reduces this ambition to a quirk. While it is not a bad story after all, even half a year later, having given it all some thought, I cannot figure out how it is supposed to work as a crime fiction novel (ostensibly, all told, it is one). And as such, it fails to impress. The characters (of which there are slightly more than one) are quite flat, and the story line bears such obvious marks of multiple editing that I had to go back to a previous page several times to see what I missed.

Still it reads well and manages to impress and makes me wish that there is a next installment and that it matures to be a success.… (more)