The Missing American by Kwei Quartey (Robenas Tadesse)

Now I’m not usually one for realistic-fiction crime, but my brother has been persistently nagging me to read The Missing American for several years now, so here we are. The Missing American by Kwei Quartey takes place in Ghana in 2016 and mainly follows 26-year-old Emma Djan’s aspirations of becoming a homicide detective in the Ghana Police Service (GPS), like her deceased father, Superintendent Emmanuel Djan. The novel shows the points of view of other characters throughout the book as well. Unfortunately, Emma Djan is contained in the mundane Commercial Crimes Unit (CCU) dealing with bland cases of trespass, document forgery, theft, etc. Emma takes her shot at asking her direct boss to be moved to the Homicide Division and train to be a detective. Her boss, Inspector Kuma, takes great offense to her audacious request but Emma is later called up to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Layrea’s office to discuss Constable Djan’s career. A sympathetic DCOP Laryea tells her that the decision to change her division lies with Commissioner Andoh, the head of the entire Criminal Investigation Division (CID). Emma’s visit to Andoh marks the end of her service in the CID and the beginning of her work as a private investigator… 

Meanwhile, a certain man from the United States–a man who mustn’t be named for the element of suspense if you do read The Missing American–is enraged because four thousand dollars have recently been scammed out of him. The man met a beautiful Ghanaian woman (or who he thought was a woman) on Facebook Messenger through the Facebook forum "Widows & Widowers." The Ghanaian woman said that her sister was in a terrible car crash, and she was running out of money to pay the hospital bills. Being so lovestruck that the man’s reasoning became clouded up, sends large portions to Ghana, and each time is told it is not enough. The man, being filled with uncontrollable, fervent love decides to go to Ghana to meet this woman, only to figure out that she does not exist, he had just been conned by a Sakawa boy. Sakawa boys are illegal workers who use a mix of Internet-based fraud with religious African rituals to scam their prey; their targets are most often Americans and Europeans. The man feels like a fool left at the side of the road. He reports his case to the police department but even the government is in on the juju-infused scammers and gets some cash in return, not to mention that Ghana’s corrupt police system is clogged with hundreds of other high-priority cases. Then a presumably marvelous idea surfaces in the man’s mind; that he should launch his own private investigation on the Sakawa scammers. Performing an unauthorized investigation on foreign soil on behalf of the United States! What could possibly go wrong?

The Missing American by Kwei Quartey captures the horrible corruption in Ghana in an entertaining light, making the novel extremely informative without being boring. Since this is a crime investigation novel, it’s really difficult to go into much detail because almost every event in the plot connects to the main mystery that you are supposed to uncover on your own. The Missing American is on the explicit side and disturbing side, but if you’re okay with graphic depictions of violence, corpses, and attempted murder this novel is great for you. I think that The Missing American is a great start for readers wanting to get into the crime genre, but also a refreshing book for already crime book-invested individuals.