Wife of the Gods

Who would want to murder Gladys, a young woman studying to be a doctor. She volunteered at an HIV clinic battling the wide-spreading threat of AIDS across Ghana. She seemed to be a very sweet girl with a bright future ahead of her and yet she wound up strangled to death and hidden in a grove of trees. Darko Dawson has been assigned the case even though it is out of his jurisdiction. Because he has family ties to this remote village, Darko potentially could navigate the cultural conflict between witchcraft versus modern science.
Like any good murder mystery there is that one suspect who looks so good for the crime that you think how could it NOT be him? Everything points to Samuel, a man obsessed with Gladys. Witnesses saw him talking show more (harassing?) her right where she was murdered. He couldn't account for his whereabouts before or after the crime...even Darko's aunt swears the boy was seen talking to Gladys.
[As an aside: The definition of a wife of the gods is a woman who has committed a crime serving penitence with fetish priests. This woman is forced to have sex with the priests to "pay" for her crime.]
Confessional: I thought the ending of this book was perfect. It was very satisfying, akin to putting the last pieces of a puzzle into place. I enjoyed getting to know Darko Dawson and wished I had more Quarty books on my Challenge list to see what Darko did next. show less

This novel is a thick slice of Ghanaian culture interspersed with mystery. The murder mystery has the reader rolling through the capital of Accra and to the outlying towns of Bedome and Ketanu where healers and fetish priests are suspect. Police brutality, subordination of women, child molestation, education and health issues all swarm about in this mystery with clarity. The reader is given a vivid scene to watch the characters reveal their motives and unfold their pasts.

Detective Inspector Darko Dawson is the protagonist. Throughout the mystery, Dawson reveals himself as someone who believes people should expect protection of their human rights whether mandated by the law or not. His decisions to act are based on this ideal, and not show more always the law of the land. Dawson struggles with his vice, smoking pot, as he worries about his son's health issues, family finances and working through injustice. This is a character a reader looks forward to becoming better acquainted in future books. This is a culture a reader would relish in understanding. Being a reader that can't resist a mystery with a flawed protagonist and a story setting in a culture outside my own, I found this novel enveloping. show less

Digital audiobook performed by Simon Prebble.

First in a series featuring Detective Inspector Darko Dawson of Accra, Ghana. Dawson is a dedicated family man with a loving wife and a charming, if medically fragile, young son. He’s also somewhat of a rebel in the police force and frequently at odds with his cantankerous boss. He’s not happy about his new assignment in remote area of Ghana; a young woman – a promising medical student and AIDS worker – has been found dead in a jungle area near the small town of Ketanu. The local police are not equipped to handle an investigation like this, and Dawson, who has relatives in the town, is fluent in the local indigenous language. But what he uncovers brings up many memories of his own show more mother, who disappeared without a trace after a visit to her sister in Ketnau.

Oh, I am going to like this series! Darko is a principled man, but he has his demons, and he seeks solace in smoking marijuana. He’s also sometimes prone to resorting to his own brand of vigilante justice. But there’s no denying that he’s a talented – and tenacious – detective. The way he ferrets out small clues and pieces the puzzle together is marvelously portrayed. There are plenty of suspects and motives and a compelling subplot to keep the reader off balance and guessing.

I also really appreciated the information on the cultural ideologies and customs of this small corner of Ghana. There’s a significant clash between traditional beliefs and modern-day medicine. And Dawson also needs to tread carefully in the political minefield that is the turf of the areas leaders, who, if not exactly corrupt, are certainly misguided and provincial in their thinking.

Simon Prebble does a marvelous job reading the audiobook. He really brings these characters to life. show less

This brought back such vivid memories of Ghana! Well told, well told and so accurately reflecting the Ghana I knew but with cell phones added.
I attended one fetish priest ceremony and I was seriously impressed with its efficacy. A woman who had just given birth to her 3rd child didn’t want to take care of it. It was obvious she must be possessed by an evil spirit, so the village shut down business as usual, took care of her children, put her in a special hut with special food and had a huge banquet and ritual dance to expel the demons. The woman was cured! If only we knew to treat post-partum depression so lovingly. It was obviously not this woman’s fault that she didn’t want to care for her child. The village took responsibility. show more
But then I heard, chillingly,of a foreign engineer trapped in the building of lights for the new stadium in Kumasi; he hung there until he died. They did not try to rescue him because the gods of the stadium wanted him.
I could not reconcile the deep wisdom of the fetish exorcism with the maddening fear which sacrificed a life.
These same ribboning of reality happens in this novel. The author now lives in Los Angeles. It scares me to think of what he might write should he turn his eye to the LA cultural brew. I hope he finds as much to celebrate. I know he will uncover the same tragedies of ignorance and fear. show less

Detective Inspector Darko Dawson is sent from the Ghanaian capital, Accra, to the small town of Ketanu to investigate the murder of a young medical student, Gladys Mensah, who was volunteering for an AIDS outreach program in the area. The local inspector believes it to be an open-and-shut case and arrests a suspect. Dawson doesn’t follow the same line of thought, and would rather pursue a different direction to find the actual killer. Running parallel to the murder investigation of Gladys is the story of Dawson. Darko is haunted by the memory of his mother who disappeared during a trip to Ketanu decades earlier and was never found.

The mystery itself is rather intricate, made so in part by the customs and beliefs of the villagers. The show more author incorporates these cultural references into the story in a seamless way. Dawson is a flawed man who has a penchant for marijuana. He’s a young husband and father, absolutely devoted to his family. His son was born with a heart defect and needs an expensive procedure that the family cannot afford. Dawson’s mother-in-law steeped in the old traditions would rather procure the services of a traditional healer than wait for the needed money to be raised, which Darko is against. His wife, Christine, has to mediate between the two.

I learned so much about the Ghanian culture in this book. The author did a great job of describing Ghana and Ghanaian medicine, both witchcraft and scientific. I didn't realize that Wife of the Gods refers to trokosi. Trokosi are young girls who are handed over to fetish priests by their families as a way to make up for bad things that have happened in the past. I'm glad I read this book and would definitely read another featuring this detective. show less

Enjoyable, but uneven. The violence to which the hero was prone made him less sympathetic, even as it was completely realistic given the household in which he was raised and his psychological issues. I guessed the murderer early, although it was no less devastating to have it revealed. On the whole, a far grimmer view of Africa than the one portrayed in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series (the blurbs all compare this book to those), so perhaps this would be a little shocking to anyone who picked this up expecting a light optimistic worldview. I think all its problems could be attributed to the fact that it is a first novel, and Qwartey has definite potential as a writer.

Detective Inspector Darko Dawson of the Accra branch of the CID is sent to Ketanu to investigate the murder of a young woman, Gladys Mensah, who was studying medicine. She was especially interested in finding a cure for AIDS. Dawson and the local chief Fiti did not always see eye to eye on suspects or how to treat them. Police brutality is a bit of an issue. Dawson was assigned the case because he spoke the local dialect. His mother's family was from the area, and he was familiar with it. His aunt lived there. In fact, Darko's mom never returned home from a trip there years earlier. Although the author used red herrings, I figured this one out pretty early on and wondered how Darko would handle it when he figured it out. I am not a huge show more fan of African settings, but this one worked for me. The characters were interesting, and it was interesting to discover some aspects of modern culture are present in the country. I look forward to the next installment. I listened to the audio book from Tantor Media, narrated by Simon Prebble, who did an excellent job. show less