“All he knew with sure was that his thoughts now converged around the idea of flying home to Nigeria to spirit away Ngene and sell the deity to Mr. Gruels. At first, the thought had scandalized him. He had tried to rebuke himself; he upbraided himself in all the stern silent languages he knew. In spite of his effort, he had found the temptation impossible to shake off. His waking hours were now often preoccupied with speculating what price the deity might command? He peered into what he always took to be his soul. He reminded himself how unlike him it was to peel away at all considerations until all that remained was the vulgar question of dollars and cents. Still his resolve was unyielding.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody  (FEB 15, 2014)

Foreign Gods Inc. by Ndibe is one of those rare books that has you laughing and crying at different intervals. It is well-written, excellently characterized and the story line is near perfect. I enjoyed this reading experience immensely.

Ike (pronounced E-Kay) is a Nigerian in America, a graduate of the elite Amherst College who has been driving cab in New York City for thirteen years because he can not get a job despite graduating cum laude and majoring in economics. He is told at job interview after job interview that his accent is too thick and he is not a good candidate for a public relations or financial position. He is at his wits end. His bills are overdue, his ex has taken him for everything he has, and he is now up to his ears in gambling debts.

As the book opens, Ike has the idea of going to a gallery called Foreign Gods Inc. and trying to sell them a statue, one that resides in his home village of Utonki. The statue is of the God of War, Ngene, a powerful god of war that served his people for centuries. At this time, Ike’s uncle is its protector. Ike believes that Negene is very powerful and will get him hundreds of thousands of dollars and take him out of debt. His mother has been begging him for money as has his sister. He has not sent them any support money for years.

Ike talks to Mark Gruel, the owner of Foreign Gods Inc. who tells Ike that he must bring the statue to him before he can tell how much it is worth. Ike decides to go back to his hometown in Nigeria and steal the statue and bring it back to New York. It is in Nigeria that a comedy of errors occurs and the reader is given the amazing history of the old and new Nigeria, the collision of the christian beliefs with the traditional religion. Ike is caught in the middle and ultimately we are left to wonder “Did he have the guts to snatch the statue of Ngene and sell it?”

The story unwinds slowly and resolutely, leading the reader from New York to Nigeria and back to New York again. We follow Ike with all of his conflicting beliefs and moral ambiguity. He is a complex and intelligent man trying to make a life for himself and for his family, while at the same time that life may end up destroying the very family he is trying to save.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 18 readers
PUBLISHER:	Soho Press (January 14, 2014)
REVIEWER:	Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Okey Ndibe
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin

Bibliography:

• Foreign Gods, Inc. (January 2014)

“When Raoni’s father was a boy, the tribe had numbered more than a hundred, but that was before a white man’s disease had reduced them by half.  In the years that followed, one girl after another had been born, but the girls didn’t stay; they married and moved on. It was the way of the Awana, the way of all the tribes. If the spirits saw fit to give them boys, the tribe grew; if girls, the tribe shrank. If it shrank too much, it died.
The Awana were doomed, they all knew it, but for the end to have come so suddenly was a horrible and unexpected blow.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky (JAN 26, 2014)

Leighton Gage, who spent a great deal of his time in Brazil, used his extensive knowledge of the country’s political, economic, and social climate to create an outstanding series of police procedurals. His latest, The Ways of Evil Men, published posthumously, opens with a heartbreaking scene. Anati, a member of the Awana tribe who live in the rainforest, goes hunting with his eight-year-old son, Raoni. When the two return to their village they discover that all thirty-nine members of their tribe are dead. Who killed these men, women, and children? Jade Calmon, an employee of the federal government’s National Indian Foundation, will not stop asking questions until she learns the truth. Since the local law enforcement authorities have no love for the Awana, Jade is forced to pull strings in order to bring in the big guns: Mario Silva, Chief Inspector of the Brazilian Federal Police, Arnaldo Nunes, Silva’s partner, and a support team that includes other agents and an assistant medical examiner.

Why can’t the locals investigate this crime? The nearest town, Azevedo, is run by the Big Six, corrupt landowners (including the mayor) who have contempt for the Indians and covet their land. To insure that no one gets in their way, they have the parish priest, the head of the local police, and a so-called environmental watchdog on their payroll. Only incorruptible law enforcement professionals like Mario Silva can be trusted to apprehend the guilty parties. Silva travels to Azevedo, where he and his colleagues interview Osvaldo Neto and his wife, Amanda, the owners of the town’s only bar, restaurant, and hotel. Osvaldo is part Indian and has disdain for the bigots, liars, thieves, adulterers, and murderers who patronize his establishment. Fortunately, Silva is a tenacious detective who relishes a challenge. He will need to be clever, devious, and lucky to solve what will turn out to be a complex and ugly case.

The Ways of Evil Men is a hard-hitting and engrossing novel that lives up to its title. The villains (both male and female) are utterly vile. They frame the innocent, bribe people to turn a blind eye to their transgressions, and enrich themselves through legal and illegal means. Another person who takes an interest in these outrageous goings-on ia a fearless female reporter named Maura Mandel; she risks her life, expecting to make headlines with what she hopes will be a sensational story. This is a compelling, gritty, and atmospheric tale with lively descriptive writing, dark humor, and sharply-crafted dialogue. Readers will admire Silva and his associates, who are determined to prove that no one–no matter how wealthy, influential, and arrogant–is above the law.

Those of us who admire Leighton Gage’s talent, creativity, and integrity will miss him greatly.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 13 readers
PUBLISHER:	Soho Crime (January 21, 2014)
REVIEWER:	Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Leighton Gage
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: Dying Gasp Every Bitter Thing Buried Strangers our interview with Leighton Gage

Bibliography:

• Blood of the Wicked (2008)
• Buried Strangers (2009)
• Dying Gasp (2010)
• Every Bitter Thing (2010)
• A Vine in the Blood (2011)
• Perfect Hatred (2013)
• The Ways of Evil Men (January 2014)

“A getaway needn’t be speedy if it’s accurate and efficient.” Wyatt said. “Vanishing, that’s the thing, and that means anticipation.”

Book Review:

Review by Guy Savage  (SEP 16, 2011)

Australian author Garry Disher has a solid reputation for his Inspector Challis police procedurals, but on Disher’s other creative side of the law, there’s also the Wyatt series. Wyatt, a methodical, cool and collected anti-hero is a Melbourne crook, and Disher’s Wyatt series is frequently considered by crime aficionados as an Aussie counterpart to Robert Parker’s Stark series. Wyatt, a heist novel, is the seventh book in the series and it appears after a 13-year-break.

Melbourne has long been known as a hot bed of police corruption, and the city was also home to the notorious Pettingill crime family. Wyatt, however, is a crook who prefers to hunt alone–except for the occasional tip, and in this novel, it’s the tip that leads to trouble.

Wyatt receives inside information from a “fixer, an agent, a middle-man” named Eddie–a man who “could sit on a half-formed plan for years until the right circumstances come along.” Eddie usually provides information, and then sits out on the crime while getting a percentage of the cut. This time Eddie wants a role in the heist, and the job comes courtesy of inside information from Eddie’s sexy ex-wife, Lydia. Lydia used to work for a jeweler who did business with the Furneaux brothers, Henri and Joe. Lydia’s a bright woman who was groped once too often by the brothers, and now she has some valuable information regarding the under-the-table deals conducted by the Furneaux brothers. Seems they own a large Melbourne jewelry store and make deliveries of valuable items all over Southern New South Wales. The beauty of the plan is that the Furneaux brothers fence stolen jewelry brought in from various points all over the world by their cousin, Alain Le Page. As Eddie says: “That’s the beauty of it—we rob a robber.”

Right at the planning stage of the heist, Wyatt has a feeling that there’s something not quite right. For a start, Eddie wants to be involved, and then he’s bringing in his ex-wife Lydia as a crew member. Involving an ex- goes against the grain for Wyatt–after all, there’s a lot of dirty unfinished business between ex-spouses. Who’s to know whether or not one has an axe to grind against the other? In this case, Wyatt’s known Eddie for a long time, but he’s not sure exactly what Lydia’s game is. However, Wyatt finds himself “recognizing something of himself in Eddie’s ex-wife. She was naturally wary and assessing, and silence was probably her natural state.” But beyond feeling a grudging respect for Lydia’s intelligence, Wyatt also feels a reluctant attraction.

In spite of the fact that Wyatt intuitively senses that there’s something wrong with the heist set-up, he decides to go ahead–after all, he’s down on his luck and needs to make a score.

Wyatt should have listened to his sixth sense…..

The novel makes the point that Wyatt is in many ways becoming an anachronism. He’s strictly a low-tech thief and he’s finding fewer situations that accommodate his talents:

“Where could a man like Wyatt lift cash these days? Money was moved around electronically. If cash was used, it was stored and protected by the kinds of high-tech security that he couldn’t hope to crack or bypass, not without the help of experts and costly equipment. That left paintings and jewelry, which were also highly protected and could only be shifted by a fence who’d give you a few dollars and then sell you out.”

If things don’t look up for Wyatt soon, he may be left with purse-snatching as his only option.

Wyatt is a definite read for fans of heist novels. While Soho Crime publishes Disher’s Inspector Challis novels, the earlier novels in the Wyatt series are out-of-print, and so Wyatt may be the first novel readers catch in the series. Much is made of the “legend” of Wyatt in the plot, and that’s hard to relate to if, like me, you haven’t heard of this character before. But nonetheless, this is a well-conducted heist novel complete with corrupt coppers, a psychotic hit man, and a deranged stripper who’s parted ways with her pole.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 7 readers
PUBLISHER:	Soho Crime (August 9, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Guy Savage
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Garry Disher
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: Dirty Money by Richard Stark Criminal Karma by Steven M. Thomas

Partial Bibliography:

• Approaches: Stories (1981)
• Steal Away (1987)
• The Difference to Me: Stories (1988)
• The Stencil Man (1988)
• Flamingo Gate (1991)
• The Sunken Road (1996)
• Straight, Bent and Barbara Vine: Crime Stories (1997)
• Past the Headlands (2001)
• Play Abandoned (2011)

The Challis and Destry Novels

• The Dragon Man (1999)
• Kittyhawk Down (2003)
• Snapshot (2005)
• Chain of Evidence (2007)
• Blood Moon (2009)
• Whispering Death (2011)

Wyatt Series:

• Kickback (1991)
• Paydirt (1992)
• Deathdeal (1993)
• Crosskill (1994)
• Port Vila Blues (1995)
• The Fallout (1997)
• Wyatt (2010; September 2011 in US)

“You think I’m stupid? You think I don’t know how things work in this country? How the rich and powerful get justice and the rest of us can go to hell? … Your superiors are on your necks. You need someone to blame. It’s as simple as that.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky  (DEC 06, 2010)

In Leighton Gage’s Every Bitter Thing, Chief Inspector Mario Silva of Brazil’s Federal Police is called in when Juan Rivas, the son of Venezuelan foreign minister Jorge Rivas, is found shot and brutally beaten. This “would be a killing with political implications, the kind of case he hated above all others.” When Silva finds out that Rivas is not the only victim–the national database shows that four other men were slain in exactly the same manner–his next step is to figure out why these particular people were targeted. Knowing the motive, Mario hopes, will quickly lead to a suspect.

Silva, Arnaldo Nunes, Haraldo (“Babyface”) Gonçalves, and Hector Costa, set off on a wild-goose chase involving a shyster lawyer, an unlucky airline flight, a teenager busted for smuggling drugs, a mysterious priest, and a hapless burglar. After interviewing a host of witnesses and following up dozens of leads, the detectives are more baffled than ever. Fortunately, their perseverance pays off when the pieces of the puzzle finally fall into place.

Every Bitter Thing is earthy, cynical, and engrossing. The author revisits some familiar themes, including the chasm between Brazil’s haves and have-nots, the usefulness of “connections,” and the devastating effects of grief. Leighton Gage, who offers ample clues for those who like to guess “whodunit,” also provides colorful characters, witty dialogue, crisp writing, and an exotic setting. Gage knows Brazil, and he gives us a fascinating taste of life there, especially in the demimonde. Mario and his cohorts show once again that the work of a homicide detective is decidedly unglamorous. The long hours, red herrings, lying witnesses, arrogant bosses, and elusive suspects make this a profession suitable only for the most persistent, clever, and patient individuals.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 28 readers
PUBLISHER:	Soho Crime (November 16, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Leighton Gage
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: The Ways of Evil Men Dying Gasp Buried Strangers Our interview with Leighton Gage

Bibliography:

• Blood of the Wicked (2008)
• Buried Strangers (2009)
• Dying Gasp (2010)
• Every Bitter Thing (2010)
• A Vine in the Blood (2011)
• Perfect Hatred (2013)
• The Ways of Evil Men (January 2014)

“They say they come here to see the river and the jungle,” the priest went on. “Sometimes it’s true. Mostly, it’s just sex tourism, pure and simple.”

Book Review:

Review by Guy Savage (FEB 13, 2010)

The whispers and rumors of the existence of snuff films first appeared in western culture some decades ago. Since then, it’s been said that snuff films–real snuff films don’t exist–that they’re nothing more than urban myths. Common sense tells me that if a lucrative trade thrives in the international black market trafficking of human organs, then real snuff films must exist. And if there’s a market for snuff films, then what better place to make them than in a country in which the poor can disappear without a trace.

Author Leighton Gage’s third Chief Inspector Mario Silva mystery Dying Gasp centres on a Brazilian snuff film ring. I’ve read all three of Gage’s novels and while they tackled different social problems in Brazil, Dying Gasp is the darkest, grimmest to date. Given the subject matter, that shouldn’t be too surprising. If you haven’t tried the Mario Silva novels yet, and if you enjoy series detective novels with an international, social/political theme, then give Leighton Gage a try. His novels are a cut above most of the detective novels on the market.

Dying Gasp begins with the disappearance of two young girls. Women go missing every day in Brazil, but the difference this time is that one of the girls is Marta, the 15-year–old granddaughter of one of the country’s most powerful politicians. While the poor vanish silently into Brazil’s vast networks of crime, that doesn’t happen with Marta. Marta’s unpleasant grandfather, Deputado Roberto Malan, pulls strings until he gets Chief Inspector Mario Silva on the case. Malan considers Marta a “disrespectful little bitch,” but he’s under pressure from his son and daughter-in-law to find the girl. Marta was last seen with her 18-year-old girlfriend Andrea, and by the time Mario Silva is roped into the case, the girls have been missing for weeks, and the trail is now stone-cold.

Meanwhile in Amsterdam, a series of events leads to a break in the case of an international snuff film ring. As the search for the major players in the films that cater to the sick tastes of the wealthy widens to Brazil, Mario Silva realizes that his search for Marta is also connected to his search for the snuff film ring. Silva has reason to believe that Marta is being held captive in a bordello which specializes in underage girls, and in a race against time, Silva and trusted detectives Arnaldo and Hector Costa travel to Manaus, a hellhole in the heart of Amazonia. In Manaus, Silva must battle against corruption and also against his old enemy, the quintessentially evil Claudia Andrade (Buried Strangers).

Mario Silva, as an incorruptible police inspector must deal with all sorts of people–including his bosses and the “superiors” who turn his stomach. Silva negotiates a corrupt, sick world, a world that he cannot ultimately change but one in which he simply does the best he can.

In Dying Gasp Gage once again delivers a terrific mystery coupled with a tale that explores the many social problems of Brazil–a country plagued with crime and corruption, and with a vast divide between the poor and the wealthy. I first came across Gage through his second novel, Buried Strangers, a story in which Gage describes the social inequities of Brazil through a crime story involving organ trafficking. While many Brazilian crime films explore the life of Brazil’s poverty-wracked ghettos, Gage’s tales argue that the poor are often the tools of the rich–either through criminal enterprises, or simply as human husks to be utilized and harvested as unwilling donors for the wealthy. But Gage also shows the inescapable connections between the worst, most evil aspects of human exploitation and those wealthy enough to indulge in the results as recreational distractions–even as they kid themselves that their hands are clean. In Dying Gasp, Gage once again creates an edge-of-the-seat read, and through this dark tale, he reveals the intricate web between the rich and poor, the exploiters and the exploited and those who try to carve a niche for themselves in between these upper and lower echelons of Brazilian society.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 21 readers
PUBLISHER:	Soho Crime (January 1, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Guy Savage
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Leighton Gage
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: The Ways of Evil Men Every Bitter Thing Buried Strangers our interview with Leighton Gage

Bibliography:

• Blood of the Wicked (2008)
• Buried Strangers (2009)
• Dying Gasp (2010)
• Every Bitter Thing (2010)
• A Vine in the Blood (2011)
• Perfect Hatred (2013)
• The Ways of Evil Men (January 2014)

“But a man cannot be too careful in his choice of enemies, as Oscar Wilde pointed out.”

Book Review:

Reviewed by Guy Savage (MAY 15, 2009)

Mon Dieu! Elegant Parisian PI, Aimee Leduc, owner of Leduc Detective Agency is back for Murder in the Rue de Paradis, the eighth mystery from author Cara Black. It’s August 1995, and to Parisians, that means it’s vacation time and everyone who can leave the city departs from the dust and heat for friendlier climes. Aimee, however, isn’t taking a vacation. She’s just landed a big contract, and feeling pleased with herself, she heads back from her late business meeting. On her way home, out of the blue, Aimee’s former lover, investigative journalist Yves Robert shows up without explanation. It’s been a long time since Aimee last saw him, and although Aimee’s been ignoring his e-mails, Yves expects to pick up the relationship where he left off. Now he wants to “try again,” and Aimee, ever a sucker for the “bad-boy type” falls into bed with Yves and is floored when he proposes marriage and apparently craves the whole domestic life thing. Incroyable!

The next morning Aimee wakes up to find Yves gone. A love-‘em-and-leave-‘em scenario rapidly turns into a murder mystery when Yves’s corpse shows up with his throat cut from ear-to-ear, and police tell Aimee that her lover is reportedly the victim of a transvestite prostitute. Given the evening they just spent together, Aimee isn’t about to swallow the party line on Yves’s death, and so she begins to investigate….

Curiouser and curioser, the suspect dies in police custody and before you can say “Quelle Horreur” Aimee is knee deep in Kurdish nationalists, Turkish fighters, an Iranian hit woman. The mystery is set in a nervous Paris reeling from a metro bombing, protests and political assassinations.

San Francisco based author Cara Black must be a Francophile, and this shows from the intricate descriptions of the Parisian settings to the text which is sprinkled with French phrases on almost every page. For PI mysteries with an ultra-femme touch (there are loads of details of Aimee’s outfits–down to her 3 inch heels), then fellow Francophiles may want to explore this mystery series designed with a light, femme, chick-lit touch which steers far away from dark, hard-boiled noir.

AUTHOR WEBSITE:Cara Black

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 16 readers
PUBLISHER:	Soho Crime (March 1, 2009)
REVIEWER:	Guy Savage
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
EXTRAS:	Olivia Boler’s review and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	For an extended stay in France, try: Chez Moi by Agnes Desarthe Caravaggio’s Angel by Ruth Brandon

Bibliography:

• Murder in Marais (1999)
• Murder in Belleville (2000)
• Murder in Sentier (2002)
• Murder in Bastille (2003)
• Murder in Clichy (2005)
• Murder in Montmarte (2006)
• Murder in the Ile Saint-Louis (2007)
• Murder in the Rue de Paradis (2008)
• Murder in the Latin Quarter (2009)
• Murder in the Palais Royal (2010)
• Murder in the Passy (2011)
• Murder at the Lanterne Rouge (2012)