Cover image of "Last Seen in Lapaz," a novel about a missing-persons case in Ghana

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Kwei Quartey is a practicing physician with the mind and eye of an anthropologist. In two series of detective novels set in his native Ghana, he portrays crime investigations against the backdrop of Ghana’s rich ancient culture and its often dysfunctional society. Revealing entrenched superstitions and the predations of greedy shamans. Probing the inefficiencies and inequities of government institutions. Exposing the yawning gap between Ghana’s superrich entrepreneurs and government officials on the take—and the desperately poor people who crowd its cities and eke out a living in the countryside. And in none of his books is his anthropological perspective more vividly in evidence than in his latest novel about a missing-persons case, Last Seen in Lapaz. It’s the third entry in Quartey’s series featuring the talented young private investigator Emma Djan.

A missing-persons case turns into a murder mystery

Emma Djan’s two current jobs are a background check on a potential Ecobank employee and an infidelity case that was straightforward and about to conclude. She’s underemployed, and bored. Then the former Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana turns up at the Sowah Private Investigators Agency. He’s an old friend of her boss, Yemo Sowah. The ex-diplomat’s daughter, Nnamdi Ojukwu, has gone missing, and the police show no interest in finding her. Since Emma’s caseload is the lightest of any of the four investigators, Sowah assigns the matter to her and her young colleague, Jojo. It seems as though it will be just another tedious and unrewarding investigation.

But all too soon it becomes clear that this is no simple missing-persons case. Because the young man with whom Nnamdi had been living turns out to have been a human trafficker and a blackmailer—and someone has shot him dead. Meanwhile, Nnamdi is still missing. And it appears now that a local madam and her violence-prone son might be involved somehow. Complications will multiply as Emma and Jojo dig more deeply into the circumstances of the murder as well as the young woman’s disappearance. And the case will challenge Emma as never before when she goes undercover in a brothel.

Last Seen in Lapaz (Emma Djan #3) by Kwei Quartey (2023) 361 pages ★★★★☆

Photo of a truck crossing the Sahara Desert, crammed with illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa en route to Europe, like the young couple in this novel about a missing-persons case
Migrants crossing the Sahara on the long, long trek to Libya en route to Europe. Scenes like this are among the most compelling in this novel. Image: InfoMigrants

Depicting West African society at its worst and its best

In Last Seen in Lapaz, as in his earlier books, Quartey reveals a deep understanding of the dynamics of West African society. The story shifts from Lagos and Benin City in populous Nigeria, to Accra in Ghana, to the desolate stretches of the Sahara. Along the way we meet highly educated, multilingual, and accomplished people like Nnamdi’s father and Yemo Sowah. But we spend much of our time poking into the lives of those on the bottom rungs of society. Most compelling are the stories of a teenage prostitute who becomes embroiled in Emma and Jojo’s case and a young couple whose lives are shattered on the way toward Europe as migrants. The latter story is especially compelling.

There are extended passages of dialogue in Pidgin, the simplified second language common in West Africa that makes it possible for people who speak different languages to communicate with one another. It’s a little slow-going to read, but fascinating. As the author explains, it’s “a legitimate lingua franca and quite distinct from incorrect English.”

All in all, Last Seen in Lapaz is a treat for any reader with a taste for detective fiction and the desire to learn about another culture from a writer who knows it inside and out.

About the author

Photo of Kwei Quartey, author of this novel about a missing-persons case in Ghana
Kwei Quartey. Image: Media Africa

Kwei Quartey is a practicing physician in Pasadena, California. He was born and raised in Accra, Ghana, the son of a Ghanaian father and a Black American mother, both university lecturers. He studied medicine at the University of Ghana Medical School and Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, DC. Quartey is the author of ten novels, including five in his Darko Dawson series of police stories, four featuring Emma Djan, and one standalone novel.

I’ve reviewed the first two books in the Emma Djan series:

I’ve also reviewed the first three books in Quartey’s Darko Dawson series of police novels:

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