The Whitewashed Tombs
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Vicious hate crimes are rocking the LGBTQ+ community in Accra, and prejudice and politics threaten to stymie PI Emma Djan’s investigation.
Author Kwei Quartey tackles a real-life—and deeply personal—issue as an anti-gay bill threatens to tear Ghana apart.
Marcelo Tetteh, a twenty-seven-year-old LGBTQ+ activist, is butchered one night after being lured on a dating app to a deserted building site. With rampant homophobia in Ghana, Marcelo’s wealthy father doesn’t trust the Ghana Police Service to find the killer, so he goes to the Sowah Private Investigators Agency for help, partly because he still feels guilty for disowning his son when he came out.
PI Emma Djan is assigned the case but quickly learns of a complication that prevents her from teaming up as usual with Jojo, her trusted colleague. Emma is the only one at work who knows Jojo is gay, and now he reveals something else: for some time, Jojo was dating Marcelo, the victim.
Working with Manu, whom she’s never gotten along with, Emma goes undercover in the International Congress of Families, a powerful organization seeking to criminalize homosexuality in African countries. As Emma infiltrates the ICF, she uncovers a web of deceit and hypocrisy and discovers that the mastermind behind the murders is someone much closer than she ever imagined. Emma must race against time to unmask the killer, protect the vulnerable LGBTQ+ community, and bring justice to the victims, all while navigating the dangerous waters of politics, power, and personal secrets.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Quartey's fourth mystery featuring PI Emma Djan (after Last Seen in Lapaz) is the best yet, interweaving an agonizing portrait of anti-LGBTQ prejudice in Ghana with a top-notch whodunit. Djan works for Accra's Sowah Agency, an investigative firm retained by Godfrey Tetteh to probe the murder of his gay 27-year-old son, Marcelo, who's been hacked to death by someone who posed as a potential partner on a hookup app. Godfrey hires Djan's agency because he doesn't trust the local authorities with the inquiry, given Marcelo's status as one of Ghana's most vocal queer activists. In a recent television appearance, Ghana's antigay tourism minister, Peter Ansah, told viewers they "knew what to do" if they ever saw Marcelo on the street; Ansah was also present when Marcelo disrupted a speech by a well-known Christian fundamentalist. Emma's investigation—which treats Ansah as a primary suspect—grows complicated when she learns that her closeted partner used to date Marcello. To find answers, Emma goes undercover, with one of her least favorite colleagues, to infiltrate the upper ranks of Ghana's government. Quartey never puts a foot wrong, keeping the plot twists coming fast and furious without sacrificing the story's heart. Readers will be wowed.
