Two Times Murder
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Meet Black British expat Greg Abimbola - a seemingly mild-mannered Russian language teacher with terrifying secrets - in this stunning mystery set in Pittsburgh, the City of Bridges: Agatha Christie meets John le Carré.
Greg Abimbola is many things. He's Black, British and fluent in Russian. He's a snappy dresser, a reasonable teacher, and an unenthusiastic sports fan. But most of all, he's exceptional at keeping secrets. Like, who he really is, and the things he's done.
Determined to keep his head down after helping solve a murder in the school basement, Greg fears a trap when Sergeant Rachel Lev of the Pittsburgh police corners him in his apartment. Because his refusal to take credit isn't modesty, it's a survival tactic.
But Rachel is here on another matter entirely. She needs his help. She's lead detective on the homicide of an unidentified man fished from the Allegheny River. With clues scant, and surrounded by colleagues who'd love to see her side-lined, Greg is her final roll of the dice.
Greg has no choice. He knows more than he's saying about Rachel's mysterious corpse. To add to his troubles, a school trustee plunges to his demise after a heated board meeting. Both deaths come with potentially lethal consequences. If he doesn't find answers, and soon, Greg Abimbola might be the third man on the autopsy table.
With its razor sharp themes of identity, diversity and culture wars, Two Times Murder is not just a pitch-perfect spy mystery, but also an incisive examination of contemporary America, written by a Black author who's lived on both sides of the pond.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Oyebanji (A Quiet Teacher) serves up a fun if far-fetched second thriller featuring spy–turned–math teacher Greg Abimbola. After helping solve a murder at the elite Pittsburgh school where he works, Greg wants to lay low and avoid detection by the Russian intelligence agency from which he's defected. When a man is found dead in the Allegheny River, however, Pittsburgh PD Sgt. Rachel Lev begs for Greg's help solving the crime, and he acquiesces—in part because he knows more about the killing than he's letting on. Then a board member at Greg's school falls from his apartment balcony to his death, and the former secret agent starts to worry Russian spies are hot on his trail. Greg remains a unique and appealing protagonist—a Black Russian with a keen eye for detail and conflicted feelings about his homosexuality—and Oyebanji utilizes him well, especially when Greg explains his deductions like a 21st-century Miss Marple. The plot's locked-room mystery and espionage thriller elements make uneasy bedfellows, however, and Oyebanji fails to make Greg's superspy background believable. It's a mixed bag.
