In Lightseekers by Femi Kayode you follow a psychologist who tries to solve a murder case in a small Nigerian town.
Location: in and around Port Harcourt in Nigeria
Lightseekers synopsis
They already know who killed the boys. What they need to know is why.
The launch of a major new international crime series featuring investigative psychologist Philip Taiwo.
Three young students are brutally murdered in a Nigerian university town, their killings – and their killers – caught on social media. The world knows who murdered them; what no one knows is why.
As the legal trial begins, investigative psychologist Philip Taiwo is contacted by the father of one of the boys, desperate for some answers to his son’s murder. Philip is an expert in crowd behaviour and violence but travelling to the sleepy university town that bore witness to the killings, he soon feels dramatically out of his depth.
Years spent first studying, then living in the US with his wife and children mean he is unfamiliar with many Nigerian customs and no one involved in the case seems willing to speak out.
The more Philip digs, and the more people he meets with a connection to the case, the more he begins to realise that there is something very wrong concealed somewhere in this community.
Book review
Lightseekers is an immersive book with a great setting: Nigeria. The murder case Philip Taiwo needs to solve is believable and contemporary. For the reader, it is quite a challenge to guess the motives of the people that Philip meets while investigating his case because of the – for many – unfamiliar setting. It is very exciting how you’ll keep guessing and trying to come up with different explanations while trying to figure out how life in a small town in Nigeria works. How well-versed are you in Nigerian family culture, hierarchy, and the power of friendships? Or the role of politics and religion in everyday life?
The narrative is very much focused on the thought process of the narrator, which makes for a slow start of the story. Philip is an academic, even though he has experience working together with a police department in the US. His naivety and slowness annoyed me at first. For example, his willingness to work closely with Chika without asking the right questions for most of the book is somewhat hard to believe. To me it seemed like he forgot that he can read people after the opening chapters of the book, only to be reminded of his skills in the last third of the book.
On the other hand, as Philip only recently returned to Nigeria after living in the USA for many years, he is having a hard time adjusting. He felt like a foreigner in the USA and also feels like a foreigner in his own country because he is used to a different way of living. This aspect makes him an interesting narrator: like the reader, he is not very familiar with the inner workings of life in Nigeria.
While the start of the book is a bit slow, the second half is much better! The italic parts add mystery and suspense to the story and make you want to know more. Lightseekers is a good thriller and definitely worth reading because of the setting and – for many – unfamiliar culture that makes this book a refreshing read. Femi Kayode made a great choice by telling the story from the perspective of an academic instead of a police officer.
Interested?
Pre-order your copy of Lightseekers via Amazon (available 11 February 2021).
Book details
Title: Lightseekers
Author: Femi Kayode
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ)
Pages: 432
ISBN13: 9781526617590
Publication date: 11 February 2021
Many thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
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