For fans of smart foreign crime books, an action-packed crime story
in an unusual setting—Kenya—and rooted in fascinating African history
In Madison, Wisconsin, it’s a big deal when African peace activist
Joshua Hakizimana—famous for saving hundreds of people from the Rwandan
genocide—accepts a position at the university. When a young girl is
found murdered on his doorstep. For local police Detective Ishmael—an
African-American in an “extremely white” town—it seems like the kind of
crime that happens in an area where the Ku Klux Klan still holds
rallies. 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 Ishmael to a
place still vibrating from the surrounding genocide, where NGO money
rules and where the local cops shoot first and ask questions later. And
although it’s the land of his ancestors, it becomes a disorienting and
terrifying quest through the slums of Nairobi, a place where knowing the
truth about history can kill you.
 Killer Thrillers
By William Saunderson-Meyer
All writing reflects social realities, albeit inadvertently at
times. It is then not surprising that race features as prominently in
African crime fiction as class issues once did
Local crime writers are painfully aware that they tread a
self-immolating minefield of political correctness while they try to
avoid racial stereotyping.
The good news, though, is that things are getting murkier and more
real...Read more
Natalie
Bosman on Nairobi Heat
...Wa
Ngugi
is obviously following in his father’s (Ngugi wa Thiong’o)
footsteps as he conjures up scenes so vivid that one can almost smell
the meat markets and taste the Tusker beer. For more, click here
| M |
Y |
S |
T |
E |
R |
Y |
P |
L |
A |
C |
E |
S |
. |
N |
E |
T |
| mystery novels with a
sense of place | The welcome
discovery this month was Nairobi
Heat, by Mukoma wa Ngugi,
that I picked up at the airport in Johannesburg. It's not his first
book,
but it's his first mystery novel, set in Madison, Wisconsin and
Nairobi, Kenya - http://www.mysteryplaces.net
|
| | |
BBC-World Service - The Strand: The
best
of this week's Strand, including Mukoma wa Ngugi talking about
his first novel 'Nairobi Heat', a look at a new exhibition at the New
York Public Library of the Performing Arts and the extraordinary story
of Ion Barladeanu, a 63 year old Romanian artist. Listen
Ngugi’s ability to weave a complex narrative, which connects
crime and racial tensions in the US to an in-depth knowledge of Kenya and its
nuances, to Rwanda and its genocide past within this African crime thriller, is
nothing but the work of a genius craftsman and wordsmith - Belinda Otas,New African Magazine. To read the full review clickhere.
It is while in Nairobi, that he encounters
that breed of person
known in Kenya as a KC (Kenyan Cowboy), Lord Thompson, a strange old
man and a nemesis of O. Lord Thompson invites them for tea and later
leads them to a place where they almost get killed. The question now
is, how much does Lord Thompson know and who is he trying to protect?
And where does the beautiful spoken word poet (I hear the pc term is
Live Literary Artist now) Muddy fit in all this? And is Joshua
Hakizimana, the professor that Ishmael left behind, as heroic as the
world believes he is?
To answer any of the above questions or to
tell more would be to give
the story away. What I can give away though is Nairobi Heat
has a fast-pace that will leave you breathless but never wanting to put
the book down until the very last page. As I raced through the book, I
found myself cheering on O and Ishmael, I tasted the Tusker on my
tongue, and I nodded my head in agreement at the wonderful insights
Ngugi brings on the NGO business of ‘saving Africa.’ Click here for
more
10
Questions for Mukoma wa Ngugi: Chimurenga
By: Jennifer Bryant  A Beautiful Blonde is Dead. This image is the spark that
ignites the international crime drama Nairobi Heat,
the debut novel by acclaimed Kenyan writer Mukoma wa Ngugi. From the
evocative title of the first chapter to the last line readers are
forced to grapple with the touchy subjects of race, class, and the
sometimes relative concept of justice. I recently had the pleasure of
dialoguing with Mukoma about his new novel, his thoughts on writing,
and his plans for the future. Read more...
|
Ngugi has also blurred the margins in this
intercontinental tale set in Wisconsin in the United States and in
Kenya. An unidentified blonde woman is found murdered on the porch
belonging to Joshua Hakizimana, a Rwandan professor who teaches
genocide and testimony at a US university. A dead blonde girl and a
black prime suspect. It's enough to excite white America, especially in
a city where the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan is active.
Indeed the narrator, Ishmael, a black detective, has advice for black
criminals: "Do not commit crimes against white people because the state
will not rest until you are caught." Hakizimana isn't perturbed, he's
even philosophical about the whole thing.
"Detective, where I come from death is a companion, like lover or good
friend," he says in English shorn of prefacing articles.
The educator ostensibly saved thousands from
machete-wielding
militia
during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Some accounts suggest that the
school he headed was a refuge for those fleeing the murderous mobs...
"A young and beautiful white woman is murdered
in the US, and the
prime
suspect is former Rwandan school headmaster, Joshua – a hero who had
risked his life to save the innocent during Rwanda’s genocide. Ishmael,
an African American detective, must investigate the case by plunging
himself into Joshua’s past. He travels to Kenya, where Joshua once
lived as a refugee, and fi nds himself unearthing his own African
identity as he uncovers this violent crime. Kenyan author Mukoma wa
Ngugi’s debut novel is a gripping and hard-hitting detective thriller
that questions race, identity and class."
| | |
Nairobi Heat Burnin’ by Zukiswa Wanner
