Femi Kayode

Lightseekers by Femi Kayode follows Philip Taiwo after he is hired by the politician father of a young man who had been one of three killed in a mob attack in a small town in Nigeria. Philip goes into this town, not looking to find out who did the killings, but why they happened.

This is the first thriller from a non-western perspective I have read, and I really enjoyed it. The plot was well-developed, and I enjoyed how it progressed and the way in which it was presented to the reader. It was a quick read, with short chapters, which I really appreciated. I would have liked a little more character development, or possibly even the addition of some chapters from Mike's or Chika's perspective so we could see some of Philip's flaws, since he was by no means a perfect person and went into the investigation with presumptions of what happened and had a hard time changing his perspective.

Kayode has a lot of potential as an author, and I will definitely be reading the next book he wrote.… (meer)

Philip Taiwo, a psychologist trained in America who has moved back to Nigeria with his family, is urged by his religious sister to look into a missing persons case - the wife of a megachurch leader has vanished, but nobody seems all that worried about her. Before long, though, it becomes clear there's more going on with the church, which has vast influence, than is on the surface. The case blows up when the police get involved, eager to make a mark whether or not their accusations have merit.

Interspersed in the story are fairly cryptic messages from ... someone, it's not at all clear at first who. As that threat unravels, the psychologically complex nature of the story becomes clear, though I'm not sure the characters' motivations were ever entirely clear to me. The final scenes seem a little over the top.

But the view into fundamentalist Christianity in Nigeria and the celebrity megachurch cults that sprout out of it, complete with sinister controlling behavior and patriarchal beliefs, was interesting as is the lively voice of the narrator and his multi-talented if somewhat conveniently skilled sidekick, a common trope in the genre.… (meer)

The event that sets off Lightseekers is a triple murder of uni students at the hands of a mob, but it’s before the novel opens, and it’s mostly offstage. Instead, we see the protagonist’s reaction to the video of the murder of the Okriki Three. Just as Philip Taiwo is revolted and motivated to find the truth, so was I.

Taiwo is a psychologist, not a police officer or detective, and he comes at these crimes as an academic, with different access than the law or a family representative would have. He’s already drawn in through complicated personal loyalties, and that’s sort of the heart of this book, all about complicated loyalties and personal connections.

Full review on my book blog… (meer)