Good growth in storytelling. ( )

Opening on a happy note, Inspector Darko Dawson and wife Christine are in the hospital with their son, Hosiah, who has finally gotten the heart operation he needed. Meantime, two bodies appear drifting in a canoe at an offshore oil drilling rig: Charles and Fiona Smith-Aidoos, prominent members of the local community. Charles works PR for Malgum Oil and Fiona is active in politics. Their niece, Sapphire, petitions for assistance, and CID Colonel Lartey forces Darko off family leave to investigate in Southern Ghana. Once again, Kwei Quartey does a good job of having Darko identify three suspects, with varying motives and keeps us guessing who is the culprit. Quartey also conveys much about African issues: industry, development, graft, culture, etc. Enjoyable reading.
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Always interesting because of the culture, the setting and Darko Dawson's strong family ties. ( )

A woman asks for someone else to look into the deaths of her aunt and uncle when their murder remains unsolved after four months from local investigators. Darko Dawson is called from his son's surgical bed to return to investigate the murder. The woman's uncle and aunt were important in rearing her. Their bodies were found afloat in a boat near an oil platform off Cape Three Points. Both were shot, and her uncle was decapitated. Is it some sort of ritual killing? Is it business-related? Is it politically motivated? Is there a police coverup? All of these questions must be answered before Darko and his partner, the chief inspector's relative, resolve the crime. The Ghana setting makes this a very interesting series. Dawson is a likable, but flawed, detective. I listened to the audiobook read by Dominic Hoffman who does an acceptable but not outstanding job with the narration. ( )

Murder at Cape Three Points by Kwei Quartey is the third book in his Darko Dawson series of crime investigations. Sent to look into the murders of wealthy Charles and Fiona Smith-Aidoo, who were discovered in a canoe that washed up near an oil rig. Charles Smith-Aidoo was in the oil business and had been in the process of trying to relocate an ecological resort to make room for oil industry workers accommodations. What Dawson has to figure out is whether this is a political murder, a financial murder or if it could possibly be a revenge murder involving family members. Before he’s through he find himself investigating three murders.

This was a well thought out and researched story as with it’s pristine white beaches and turquoise ocean, Cape Three Points in Ghana is being slowly developed into a premiere tourist destination with both ecological and luxury resorts, added to this is the discovery of oil located off-shore in the same area making this a very important location both politically and financially. The author weaves his story around these facts and delivers an interesting, yet somewhat dry mystery. What kept the pages turning for me was the descriptions of a world that is perched between the future and the past. Corruption and development seem to go hand-in-hand in these emerging African countries.

Although I did not find this book as engrossing as the previous one, I will certainly be picking up the fourth book as this author appears to have his fingers on pulse of Ghana and I enjoy learning about such a different culture. ( )