“Something didn’t add up-a beautiful blonde girl dead on the doorstep of an African professor. A suicide or an accidental overdose on a stranger’s front porch? No, it was too random to be random.”
If I’m going to read an international crime novel, I expect (or rather I hope), that the novel will take me outside of my environment. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I expect an international crime novel to show how crime and/or crime detection is different in that particular country.
With those ideas in mind, Nairobi Heat by Mukoma Wa Ngugi delivers big-time.
The novel begins with Madison, Wisconsin police detective, Ishmael on a flight to Kenya. That’s a long way to solve a crime that happened in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin is a predominantly white state with african-americans running at about 6% of the population. Detective Ishmael is one of the 6%, and he’s called out one night to a potentially politically explosive murder scene at Maple Bluff, the richest suburb in the state. A young white, blonde woman has been found dead from an apparent overdose, and her corpse is sprawled out on the steps of a home occupied by a university employee. But the employee isn’t just any employee–he’s Joshua Hakiziman–an international celebrity for his brave role in saving hundreds of people during the Rwandan genocide. Thanks to his fame, Hakiziman now teaches “genocide and testimony” at the university.
Hakiziman due to his humanitarian halo is, in some ways, untouchable. He claims he spent an evening enjoying cocktails with friends and came home to the body of an unknown woman on his doorstep. Detective Ishmael can’t discover any connection, but he’s troubled by the case and aware of its racial implications. Maple Bluff isn’t exactly a hotbed of crime:
On the face of it, it looked like an overdose or a suicide but not a murder. This was Maple Bluff after all–a cat up the tree, stolen stop signs, an occasional drunk and unruly grandmother visiting from upcountry perhaps, but not murder.
While Joshua appears to have nothing to hide, his calm detachment bothers Detective Ishmael:
But as I was typing little details began to bother me. The walls of the house, for example, had been empty–no paintings, no photographs. It had been like being in one huge hotel room, impersonal yet inhabited. How could he live in that house without leaving a trace of himself? But that wasn’t a crime.
Meanwhile the beautiful dead blonde goes unidentified, and pressure builds to solve the case. Then Ishmael receives an anonymous phone call urging him to come to Nairobi if he wants to discover the truth. He’s given two weeks by his police chief, and then flies to Kenya.
Nairobi is a culture shock for Ishmael. He’s teamed up with Nairobi detective David O, and Ishmael quickly learns that he’s viewed by locals (and insulted) as a white man–his ethnicity which separated him from the white detectives and the community back in Madison means nothing in Kenya. Here, life is cheap, and when it comes to ‘law enforcement,’ it’s a whole other game. Crimes take place in broad daylight with very few consequences, some areas are virtually impenetrable due to private mercenary armies or criminal gangs, and then if you’re backed into a corner and end up shooting a bunch of locals, there’s no inquiry, no investigation, and it’s back to business as usual.
On the way to uncovering the truth, Ishmael finds himself in a complex web of corruption and lies. While he’s shocked by the day-to-day lawlessness of Kenya, oddly he begins to feel that he fits in. He makes fast friends with David O and his wife and even picks up a love interest along the way to solving the Wisconsin murder. Clearly this is the beginning of a series character, and for those who like their crime set in foreign locales, Nairobi Heat is an excellent read. While Kenya’s apparent lawlessness seems to blur the lines of good and evil, in reality, Ishmael discovers that the distinction is sharp and clear.
My copy courtesy of the publisher via netgalley and read on my Kindle.
His Futile Preoccupations ..... 
I’ve heard of the father and want to read his Memoir Dreams in a Time of war soon. But I did not know the son.
I see there is a bit of a trend of African crime writers these days. I saw more than one name lately. I recently got a book by Nii Ayikwei Parkes.
Caroline: I hadn’t heard of either the father or the son when I decided to read this. It just sounded different (and it was). Some crime novels, as you know, touch on social issues such as poverty, and that’s true here except the social issue is genocide.
Why does he go to Kenya when the professor is from Rwanda? (if you can answer this without spoilers)
What’s the nationality of the writer?
PS: I didn’t think you were that close to read the Hensher. Looking forward to your review of Whatever.
He gets an anonymous phone call that the answer to the crime is in kenya. This really is a great plot development because he imagines that he’ll “fit in” and he doesn’t of course. Well not initially of course.
The author is from Kenya.
I put the Hensher novel at the top of the pile. Couldn’t resist as I throughly enjoyed The Northern Clemency.
I meant “what’s the link between Rwanda and Kenya here?”
I’ve never read Hensher, I’ll discover him with your review.
That’s the key to the whole mystery… can’t say more in case I spoil it.
I expected that answer. Ok, if I want to know, I have to read the book. Do you have a magic device to change 24 hours days into 48 hours days ?
No but there was the mention in one of the Harry Potter books about being able to attend two classes at the same time.
Yes I remember. I envied Hermione Granger to have such a tool.
This sounds pretty interesting. The idea of Ishmael being a fish out of water wherever he goes is a good one. Where will he take the series after this though? Is the main character strong enough to get you reading more without the African / foreign set-up?
The author has that last question covered, and I’ll tell you how if you want, but it is a plot giveaway.
This reminds me slightly of a non-fiction title from the ’80s or ’90s. Native Stranger. It was about an African-American who went to Africa to get in touch with what he considered his people. Sadly he found they didn’t feel he was their people. The Africans considered him American and drew no distinction between him and White Americans. To them a shared colour was irrelevant, the difference in colour between him and most Americans they saw equally irrelevant.
He was rather disillusioned as I recall. He had thought himself African, but going to Africa taught thim that in fact he had (of course) been American all along. I wonder if it’s a common experience or if the author’s aware of that non-fiction work. It was quite controversial in its day.
When did ROOTS come out? It was the 70s wasn’t it?
Yes in the book, the big divide is cultural not colour.