The Missing American

Written by Kwei Quartey

Narrated by Robin Miles

Accra private investigator Emma Djan's first missing persons case will lead her to the darkest depths of the email scams and fetish priests in Ghana, the world's Internet capital. When her dreams of rising through the Accra police ranks like her late father crash around her, 26-year-old Emma Djan is unsure what will become of her career. Through a sympathetic former colleague, Emma gets an interview with a private detective agency that takes on cases of missing persons, theft, and infidelity. It's not the future she imagined, but it's her best option. Meanwhile, Gordon Tilson, a middle-aged widower in Washington, DC, has found solace in an online community after his wife's passing. Through the support group, he's even met a young Ghanaian widow he's come to care about. When her sister gets into a car accident, he sends her thousands of dollars to cover the hospital bill-to the horror of his only son, Derek. Then Gordon decides to surprise his new love by paying her a visit-and disappears. Fearing for his father's life, Derek follows him across the world to Ghana, Internet capital of the world, where he and Emma will find themselves deep in a world of sakawa scams, fetish priests, and those willing to kill to protect their secrets.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781980077831

Reviews for The Missing American

[Susan Terendy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After a very slow start that almost made me give up this became pretty interesting! While most of the story was focused on political corruption and internet scammers it was the depiction of daily life in Ghana that was truly fascinating. Like in most countries it is a tale of social class and wealth with the wealthy enjoying privileged lives and the poor either struggling or resorting to crime to survive. The fetish priests play on this desperation and take advantage of this desire for more in rather preposterous and horrifying ways. There is some animal sacrifice involved in this story with chickens and one poor alligator but it can fairly easily be skipped over. There are a lot of things in this story to be angry about, including attempted rape, and the treatment of animals is just one of them. There are a few moments of humour but this isn't a cozy mystery by any means. It is moderately dark and violent. In the end everything has a satisfactory, but not really happy, conclusion. I am interested in seeing what happens for Emma so I will likely pick up the next book at some point. I listened to the audiobook and I really enjoyed hearing the accents and proper pronunciations of names and words. I did find the narration a bit slow so I sped it up a notch but overall it was very good.

[streamsong_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the more interesting mysteries that I have read in a long while. We’re flung head first into the social niceties of Ghana when an American flies to Ghana, believing that he has found his ideal woman. Instead, he finds that she does not exist, and he is the victim of a scam. An American journalist friend convinces him that to stay in Ghana and track down the scam would make an excellent story. Our American reluctantly agrees. He talks to the scammers known as Sakawa boys, authorities, including one whose wife he briefly had an affair with in the States, and even a traditional priest whose magic looks very dark indeed.But then he goes dark. After several weeks with no contact, his son arrives in Ghana to look for him and ends up at the detective agency where Emma Dian is newly employed. Emma has had her own experience with corrupt cops and has had her hopes of working with the police force dashed.This is an interesting look at the online scams – everything from programs designed to help the scam along, to officials not really believing that Americans being scammed is much of a problem.I’m looking forward to the next Emma Dian novel.

[msf59 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I do not read as much crime fiction, as I used to. I read a steady diet of it, in the 80s and 90s but I like reading one, now and then and this crime novel, the first in a series, was quite enjoyable. Set mostly in Ghana, it features an ex-cop private investigator, who is looking into an American, who has gone missing in her country. She makes an engaging sleuth.

[gpangel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Missing American by Kwei Quartey is a 2020 Soho Crime publication. A promising start to a new series! Emma Djan wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps by becoming a homicide detective. She finally makes it into the police force, but her dreams of working homicide go horribly awry when she is kicked off the force. Thankfully, she lands on her feet getting hired on as a private detective, working for Yemo Sowah, also a former cop. The first case Emma is assigned is that of a missing American man, Gordon Tilson, who had flown to Ghana to meet a woman he met online. Upon arrival, Gordon realizes he has been duped,that the woman he was to meet, never existed. Gordon, feeling quite embarrassed, plans his return to the US immediately. But, an old friend of his curiously pressures him to stay in the country and enjoy himself for a few days, then suggest the scammers should not go unpunished, thus convincing Gordon to some investigating. But, before he makes much headway, he disappears. Now Gordon’s son, Derek, has come to Ghana in search of his father, hiring Emma’s detective firm to investigate. I enjoyed this mystery partly because it is set in Ghana, an interesting locale, and because of the different dialects and procedures. I also liked the characters, especially Emma, who is easy to cheer for. Internet scams are nothing new, of course, but the plot is fresh, multi-layered and quite interesting. I will admit the pacing is slow, and the book does require a sharper focus and a little patience at times. But, I felt that the slower pace enabled me to fully absorb this well-crafted, detail driven story. Everything is somehow connected, and as the pieces drop into place in their own good time, it becomes clear how brilliantly plotted the novel is.Overall, I loved the atmosphere, the lush, rich, and complicated location, the different dialects and the culture which helped create a tense, riveting crime drama. I already have the second book in the series queued up and ready to go!! 4 stars

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A lonely widower is befriended on Facebook by a younger Ghanaian woman. They become close and he sends her money for her sister. His best friend, a dying journalist encourages him and he decides to visit her in Ghana. When he arrived, she is nowhere to be found. His friend convinces him to investigate sakawa boys, those who create false identities in order to scam money from unwitting westerners. The man disappears. Emma joined the police force hoping to investigate murders, but the opportunity to join the homicide department came with sexual assault attempt from her boss and so she ends up working as a private investigator for a company in Accra and one of the first cases she is assigned is that of an American trying to find his father, who disappeared a few weeks earlier. This is a solid mystery novel. The plot is solid and the novel is well-paced. The author is both Ghanaian and American and so this book is an introduction to life in Ghana, presented with an eye to what Americans don't know. Some of the characters and situations were what one expects in a thriller-type book but the uniqueness and richness of the setting minimized these elements and as this is the author's first book, there's a good chance this series will become better as it goes.

[cathyskye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have been a fan of Kwei Quartey's Darko Dawson series since the first book, Wife of the Gods. I was thrilled to discover that The Missing American has the same superb sense of place as Quartey's previous series. Readers can feel as though they're actually in Ghana while they read; the landscape, weather, people, food, and culture give the story a richness that I find irresistible.Although I loved reading this book, I did find it a bit bloated with a lot of "irons in the fire." Internet scams, sexual harassment, an assassin on the loose, corrupt police and government officials, a center for autistic children, murder, and missing persons just to mention a few. It's a lot to keep track of, and some of that action undoubtedly could have waited for upcoming books in the series.The characters in The Missing American are an interesting mix. I couldn't really drum up a lot of sympathy for the missing American, which probably sounds a bit harsh, but I certainly do like Emma Djan, whose character is a good blend of intelligence, frailty, and strength. I also want to know more about her boss in the agency, Yemo Sowah. He's a fascinating man surrounded by a bit of mystery-- just the sort of character to pique my curiosity.Now that Kwei Quartey's new Emma Djan series has well and truly begun, I find myself looking forward with a great deal of anticipation to my next visit to Ghana.