The Missing American | 
Last week I was discombobulated by the time change and didn‘t have a #hyggehourreadathon at all. This week it‘s dark and windy, but the promised rain hasn‘t materialized.
We just had corned beef and cabbage, and I‘m settled in with the tagged book. It‘s for book club tomorrow.
I read a number of 5-star books in January, including all 3 books in this series at the time (I‘ve since read the 4th book that was published this year), which were all 5-stars. So I‘ll give the top January book to the first in the series. So good. #12booksof2024 @Andrew65
#tlt #threeforthursday Thanks @Read4life for the tag!
1) Emma Djan from the tagged series
2) Precious from the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency
3) Steele from the Glass and Steele series
Some marvelous ladies!!
pickIn #Ghana, getting an education doesn‘t promise a successful life but being a sakawa boy does. They answer to fetish priests who bestow magical powers on the sakawa boys in return for ghoulish tasks they perform for the priests. Sakawa boys run sophisticated internet scams on Americans. In this story, an American falls in love with a realistic woman, gives her money for an emergency, and travels to meet her. When he learns she doesn‘t exist he ⬇️
I just finished this book and HOLY SMOKES is it ever good!! I‘ll have to think on how to write the review of such a complex murder mystery set in #Ghana, but I‘m pretty sure I‘ll line up to read every book in this series. Fortunately there are two more books at this point. And there‘s another detective series about Inspector Darko Dawson also set in Ghana by the same author.
Review to come.
#foodandlit @Catsandbooks
It always feels appropriate when a #foodandlit book that‘s not about food still mentions food. I looked up kenkey. It‘s made from fermented white corn. #Ghana @Catsandbooks
https://www.196flavors.com/ghana-kenkey/
I arrived early for my 3 pm massage. Nothing like a little self-care.
This is my Friday night party
#Ghana #foodandlit @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB
My nightly hot chocolate and my book. The book is really really good! The mug is from the Library of Congress, a gift to my husband in 1998 when I clerked at a law firm in DC.
#Ghana #foodandlit @Catsandbooks
Technically it‘s all my ebooks. But IRL, it‘s the tagged book. Fortunately it‘s pretty interesting so far.
I‘d love to hear what book is closest to you right now.
I just love it when my book for #foodandlit talks about traditional food, and the book is not about food. It‘s like “Bonus!” Here a character is making fufu and groundnut stew, a recipe from #Ghana.
@Catsandbooks
This is the first in a series of detective stories by this author set in #Ghana that I‘ll be reading for #foodandlit. It‘s a bit long so hopefully I‘ll get through it this month and maybe into the second book. I just learned there‘s a third book in the series now! So I‘ll see if I can turn this into the first series I hope to read for #serieslove2024 I have a few series I hope to keep reading this year.
pickFor #readafrica2022 #Ghana I downloaded this one and let me tell you I was hooked right away. With plenty of twists this is a solid mystery/suspense read. Loved the cultural elements that truly pull you into this world! #travelthroughbooks @BarbaraBB @Librarybelle
pickEmma wants to be a homicide detective like her father was, but a violent incident sees her out of the police department. She ends up working for a private detective and helping to search for an American who came to #Ghana for a woman and went missing. This book explores internet scams and local relationships. I really enjoyed it!
#ReadingAfrica2022
Husband is helping me get ready for #readingafrica2022. This one from his library for #Ghana. @BarbaraBB @Librarybelle
pickRounding up to a pick because I liked the Ghanaian setting, culture, and manners. It‘s a twisty mystery, with a wide variety of potential motives and plenty of corruption in high places. The one sex scene, though, did a huge disservice to the book. You could have removed it and lost nothing. I could have lived happily ever after never seeing or hearing the phrase “pleasure grotto”. Yes, I‘m going to be mad about that for awhile.
“Pleasure grotto” 🙄
I‘ve read bad romance novels with less nauseating euphemisms.
pickA little slow to start, but once I really got into it, it was a really fascinating read. I look forward to seeing more in this series!
bailedThis book was not at all what I expected. I DNF-Ed after reading 200 pages. I couldn‘t find a thing interesting about it. Unlikeable characters, dry plot, and the main detective Emma Djian boring. This is book 1 of the Emma Djian séries but he‘ll have to step it up for the following books. Detective novels need mystery and intrigue and thibook had none of the above. Would definitely try something else by Quartey though.
pickKwei Quartey, in The Missing American, weaves together the lives of his characters to create a cautionary tale, exposing some of the negative consequences that come with internet love. The characters are well-written and realistic; I liked the way their lives were interconnected with each other and how those connections played out during the events of the novel. It was a story that kept me turning the page and guessing up until the very end.
