In the slums of Accra, Ghana’s fast-moving, cosmopolitan capital, teenagers are turning up dead. Inspector Darko Dawson has seen many crimes, but this latest string of murders—in which all the young victims bear a chilling signature—is the most unsettling of his career. Are these heinous acts a form of ritual killing or the work of a lone, cold-blooded monster? With time running out, Dawson embarks on a harrowing journey through the city’s underbelly and confronts the brutal world of the urban poor, where street children are forced to fight for their very survival—and a cunning killer seems just out of reach.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of those novels that are not so easy to read. Not because of the writing, which is excellent, but because of the subject matter, which is as bleak as it can get.
If I could use just one word to describe this book I would say that it's a document; the document of a harsh and heart-breaking reality in a brutal place.
The main protagonist in this story is Inspector Darko Dawson, who works for the police force of Ghana's capital city, Accra. Darko is one of those rare or rather unconventional creatures that really care about what goes on around them, and who sees the world as it truly is and not as he wished it to be. And this world is cruel. Accra may be a big cosmopolitan city, but behind its sometimes bright picture lies a somewhat grim reality. And it's exactly this reality that keeps him constantly on the move, which makes him walk time and again around the dangerous alleys and the most frightening neighborhoods of the city, trying to offer help and protection to the people who need it.
Of course it's not that easy to work under circumstances like these: of utter poverty, where contagious illnesses are all too common and where prostitution is for many people a way of life; the only means they have to survive.
Darko is especially fond of the children of the street, kids with no hope and no future, and kids who are really trying to get themselves out of the gutter and live to see a better day. So when one of those kids is found dead outside a slum, killed in a brutal way, he's more determined than ever to find out who the killer is.... Read more ›
If I could use just one word to describe this book I would say that it's a document; the document of a harsh and heart-breaking reality in a brutal place.
The main protagonist in this story is Inspector Darko Dawson, who works for the police force of Ghana's capital city, Accra. Darko is one of those rare or rather unconventional creatures that really care about what goes on around them, and who sees the world as it truly is and not as he wished it to be. And this world is cruel. Accra may be a big cosmopolitan city, but behind its sometimes bright picture lies a somewhat grim reality. And it's exactly this reality that keeps him constantly on the move, which makes him walk time and again around the dangerous alleys and the most frightening neighborhoods of the city, trying to offer help and protection to the people who need it.
Of course it's not that easy to work under circumstances like these: of utter poverty, where contagious illnesses are all too common and where prostitution is for many people a way of life; the only means they have to survive.
Darko is especially fond of the children of the street, kids with no hope and no future, and kids who are really trying to get themselves out of the gutter and live to see a better day. So when one of those kids is found dead outside a slum, killed in a brutal way, he's more determined than ever to find out who the killer is.... Read more ›
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By A. Ross
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
This second in the "Darko Dawson" series (following Wife of the Gods) finds the Ghanaian Detective Inspector roaming the capital city of Accra in search of the serial killer stalking the city's vast population of homeless children and teens. As best one can tell from the available statistics, about 1 in every 100 resident of Accra is a homeless street child, hustling for day-labor work and literally sleeping in the streets. This makes them easy prey for every kind of predator imaginable, especially a serial killer. Now, I'm not really a fan of crime fiction or films that feature serial killers -- when there's so much "regular" evil in the world it often feels like lazy and sensationalistic storytelling when an author unveils a serial killer within a plot. However, in this book, it works quite well and feels organic to the story and setting.
In the first book, the writing was a bit clunky and flat, and while the prose is still far from stylish, it does feel much more polished and readable. Darko remains an engaging protagonist, both clever and somewhat headstrong, with his own emotional turmoil and weaknesses to humanize him. However, that also makes the supporting characters feel kind of flat on the page, with less depth and richness to them. Hopefully future books will see some richer development of some of the rest of the cast, such as Darko's wife and brother. Still, on the whole, the book manages to walk that fine line of presenting a social issue and being an engaging page-turner. The problem of homeless children getting swallowed by big cities is a ticking demographic time bomb that reflects very poorly on humanity, and is hardly limited to Africa. Kudos to the author for taking on this social ill as the basis for a genre plot and casting a greater light on the issue.
In the first book, the writing was a bit clunky and flat, and while the prose is still far from stylish, it does feel much more polished and readable. Darko remains an engaging protagonist, both clever and somewhat headstrong, with his own emotional turmoil and weaknesses to humanize him. However, that also makes the supporting characters feel kind of flat on the page, with less depth and richness to them. Hopefully future books will see some richer development of some of the rest of the cast, such as Darko's wife and brother. Still, on the whole, the book manages to walk that fine line of presenting a social issue and being an engaging page-turner. The problem of homeless children getting swallowed by big cities is a ticking demographic time bomb that reflects very poorly on humanity, and is hardly limited to Africa. Kudos to the author for taking on this social ill as the basis for a genre plot and casting a greater light on the issue.
By E. Crowley
Format:Paperback
Inspector Darko Dawson of the Ghana Police Service in Accra is called to a polluted lagoon when the body of a young man is discovered, already in a state of decomposition. In the heat of Accra, it is difficult to determine the time of death but it is not difficult to see that he died of a stab wound in the back that destroyed the lung.
The call to the police has come from a nine year-old boy, Sly, who, by calling the authorities, has broken the main rule of the street community: never talk to the police. The site of the body dump is known as "Sodom and Gomorrah", the nickname for Agbogbloshie, the most dangerous slum in Accra. "Roaming the open land bordered by the Ring Road on the west and the edge of the Odaw River on the east were a few grazing horses and a herd of placid, foraging cows, brought all the way from the northern territories by migrants who had lived as nomads. It was a bizarre mixing of rural lifestyle with the urban slum. Only in Accra, Dawson thought. Only in Accra."
When other children of the street are found, all killed in the same way and with mutilations specific to each killing, no one doubts the presence of a serial killer. With as many as 60,000 children living on the streets, there is no dearth of possible victims. There is also no dearth of suspects including a street child who poses great danger to the younger children and a sociologist who sees the children as statistics for his dissertation.
The children on the streets of Accra have come to the cosmopolitan city because it is here that money can be found. They don't understand until it is too late that the money is in the hands of those who keep to the parts of the city where the children are unseen.... Read more ›
The call to the police has come from a nine year-old boy, Sly, who, by calling the authorities, has broken the main rule of the street community: never talk to the police. The site of the body dump is known as "Sodom and Gomorrah", the nickname for Agbogbloshie, the most dangerous slum in Accra. "Roaming the open land bordered by the Ring Road on the west and the edge of the Odaw River on the east were a few grazing horses and a herd of placid, foraging cows, brought all the way from the northern territories by migrants who had lived as nomads. It was a bizarre mixing of rural lifestyle with the urban slum. Only in Accra, Dawson thought. Only in Accra."
When other children of the street are found, all killed in the same way and with mutilations specific to each killing, no one doubts the presence of a serial killer. With as many as 60,000 children living on the streets, there is no dearth of possible victims. There is also no dearth of suspects including a street child who poses great danger to the younger children and a sociologist who sees the children as statistics for his dissertation.
The children on the streets of Accra have come to the cosmopolitan city because it is here that money can be found. They don't understand until it is too late that the money is in the hands of those who keep to the parts of the city where the children are unseen.... Read more ›
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