news
Kwei Quartey’s Next mystery
K
wei Quartey is a surgeon and mys-
tery author whose sleuth, Ghanaian
police inspector Darko Dawson, this
year solved his second big mystery in
“Children of the Street.” Quartey’s debut
novel, a mystery also featuring Dawson,
was “The Wife of the Gods.” Born and
raised in Ghana himself, the son of an
African American mother and a Ghanaian
father who were both university professors,
Quartey says he wanted to be a writer from
childhood. Here the Skanner news spoke
with the author about his novels, his home
country, and writing.
The Skanner News: Your background is
so interesting – one foot on the African con-
tinent and one foot in America, like the
President.
Quartey: I think you’re right, and I think
even maybe more so than the president
because my childhood was spent on both
continents — on the American continent
and the African continent, in Ghana specifi-
cally.
tSn: Here at the Skanner News we get a
lot of books by African and African
American authors but very few are pub-
lished by mainstream publishing houses. So
what was your journey in getting this pub-
lished by Random House – it’s your second
novel?
Quartey: Yes, the first was “Wife of the
Gods.” It’s been a long journey. I guess I
should go all the way back to childhood,
when I started writing novellas and short
stories. I was very much stimulated by the
number of books in my house. My
parents were both university lecturers
in Ghana, and I was educated by the
number of both fiction books and
non-fictions books in the house. So I
always wanted to write, and the mys-
tery genre has always been my
favorite. I had a number of characters
– one James Bond-ish type guy, I
always had a group of kids who went
around solving mysteries. So it really
started then and really persisted all the way
through my teens. It took a back seat to
medicine, which I studied and got my MD
at Howard University.
So it wasn’t until after I got out of med
school that my writing was rekindled. And
that’s when I started sending out stuff to
multiple agents and getting back rejection
letters – of which there were probably hun-
dreds.
For a while I was writing stuff based in
Los Angeles, some thrillers, and nothing
was really gelling. And it just happened that
at the turn of the millennium, around 2000,
I was in Paris and just for a couple days and
I was in hotel rooms, and I came across this
program on French TV which dealt with a
local detective in Ivory Coast who’s trying
to solve a mystery in a village. And what he
was doing was using the superstitions and
beliefs in magical powers of the local peo-
ple, trying to trick them into confessing or
stating what they had seen as witnesses. I
was really intrigued, having grown up in
Ghana since I was 18 or so I was aware of
some of these beliefs. I thought – if I could
write that kind of story, and make it a mur-
der mystery, and set it in Ghana.
And that’s when the first idea came for
“The Wife of the Gods.”
tSn: So the girls are indentured because
of things their families did years ago?
Quartey: Sometimes even generations
ago. The idea is to get the protection of the
gods, and to give these children over. So in
that setting mixing it up with these magical
beliefs and why bad things happen to good
people, which is a question that more
Africans ask than, say, Americans ask is,
say, why did this happen to me? Not so
much how?
So that book deals with that aspect.
And the second book, “Children of the
Streets,” is a little bit more of an urban mod-
ern 21st century story that deals maybe a lit-
tle less with tradition but certainly there is
one aspect that is cov-
I want to put
Ghana on the
crime fiction
map
c
o
m
- Kwei Quartey
ered, and that is
proverbs. Anybody who reads this book
sees that proverbs become an important part
of the story. African proverbs specifically.
tSn: And then you have another book
coming out next year.
Quartey: I’m hoping it will be next year,
m
u
n
I
t
Dedicated
PhOtO BY Bernie fOSter
By lisa loving
Of The Skanner News
this imposing memorial to Dr. martin luther King Jr. was dedicated Oct. 16.
the ceremony, on the national mall in washington DC, featured speeches
from President Obama, members of the King family, civil rights pioneer
rep. John lewis and others. Vendors sold photographs edited to place the
president and Dr. King together in the Oval Office.
if I can persuade Random House to work
that fast on it. I’m working on a novel that
I’m tentatively calling “Men of the Rig,”
and this deals with the brave new world of
oil exploration which is underway in
Ghana, which is producing oil since
December, 2010, and of course the issue
is, is this really going to create a new
Ghana, or is it going to be much the
same story as gold exploration, which
does not enrich the lives of even the
people in those gold-mining towns, so
in other words, do it like Norway, which
knows how to handle its oil production,
or do like Nigeria, which is a mess,
basically.
tSn: Who are your inspirations?
Quartey: I think the first inspiration is
certainly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation,
Sherlock Holmes, because he’s really the
prototype, along with Allen Poe’s creations
as well, of testing, looking for small things
that give something away. His character
y
c
a
l
e
n
actually is based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s
character the Professor, Dr. Joseph Bell,
who could always tell a lot about a person
by observing what he wears or how he
walks or what mud was on his shoes or
something like that. So testing, or observa-
tion, is a central point in my books. My hero
Darko Dawson, has in that regard, an abili-
ty called synesthesia in which he is able to
perceive certain senses by another sense.
For example when he hears a voice he can
actually feel it – either wet, or dry and
prickly – and this gives him the ability
sometimes to catch people out in a lie.
He also is keen observer of people and
their behavior. So Sherlock Homes comes
through in that way. And I think even sub-
liminally Sherlock Holmes comes through
because, as many people know, he had an
addiction to cocaine, and Darko Dawson’s
addiction is marijuana.
Read the rest of this story online at
www.theskanner.com
d
a
r
S eattle O ctOber 2011
B ulletIn B oard
If you have an event you want to share
with the community, email it two weeks
in advance to The Skanner at
info@theskanner.com
friday October 21
FreaKY Fall FestiVal: Join us for this annual
evening of treats and a few tricks. Come in
costume and enjoy carnival style games, crafts,
a jumpy toy and much more. $3 per person. 6
Page 2 The Seattle Skanner October 19, 2011
p.m. – 8 p.m. ravenna-eckstein Community
Center, 6535 ravenna ave. Ne.
Saturday October 22
friday October 28
the sPOOKY sPriNt
Kids ages 6 – 12 are invited to come in costume
and participate in the 8th annual spooky sprint.
a one-mile or two-mile fun run at maguson Park.
(south of the swim beach). a special tot sprint
ages 3-5 will kick-off the event. Cost is $15.00.
Please call 206-684-7026 for more information.
hauNteD teeN Flashlight PriZe aND CaNDY huNt
magnuson Park’s annual haunted Flashlight Prize
and Candy hunt for teens ages 11-14 will take
place at 7:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. in hanger 30, 6344
Ne 74th st. the hunt is free. Please call 206-684-
7026 for more information.
Saturday October 29
Sunday October 23
eXPlOre eXPerieNCe aND eNJOY CrOatiaFest
Join in folk dance lessons and a dance party,
learn the art of Croatian cuisine and wine tasting
and purchase your favorite ethnic crafts and
products. Noon – 8 p.m. in the seattle Center
exhibition hall.
PumPKiN Push 5K tO Care FOr seattle’s
hOmeless
help our community gather to carve out a
place for seattle’s most vulnerable, all while
having a great time celebrating healthy, fun
halloween. seward Park. For more information
call 206-548-3266.