Making Wolf by Tade Thompson

I would like to thank Nazia from Constable for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Constable

Published – 7th May

Price - £8.99 paperback £5.99 Kindle eBook

Meet Weston Kogi, a London supermarket store detective. He returns home to his West African home country for his aunt's funeral. He sees his family, his ex-girlfriend Nana, his old school mate Church. Food is good, beer is plentiful, and telling people he works as a homicide detective seems like harmless hyperbole, until he wakes up in hell.

He is kidnapped and forced by two separate rebel factions to investigate the murder of a local hero, Papa Busi. The solution may tip a country on the brink into civil war.

One of the reasons I love detective novels is that the detective by virtue of being an investigator gets to be an outsider able to explore all levels of a society and their interactions with one another. Crime novels are a great way of seeing how humans and societies tick; because what happens at our worst moments probably tells us a lot about how we are doing most of all. In Making Wolf Tade Thompson takes us to the fictional country of Alcacia to meet a man thrown into the deep end of crime investigation and finds a society both alluring and yet very very dangerous.

This story focuses on Weston Kogi who only mean to return to Alcacia for a few days to pay his respect at his aunt’s funeral before getting back to London and his job as a supermarket store detective. But a chance encounter with a childhood bully means Weston thinks slightly upgrading his job description to London Met Detective will make people think much better of him. This works so well that he soon finds himself drugged and kidnapped, waking up to arrive at the feet of one of the two leading revolutionary factions in Alcacia asking him to investigate a murder. Enoch Olubusi was a renowned peacemaker (and nearly won a Noel Peace Prize) bringing the warring Alcaican factions together in the 90’s. With recent growing tensions in the country he had come back to public life in an attempt to alleviate a civil war as the two rival factions squared up to the state government. Unfortunately he and his guards were then blown up by a landmine. Weston gets hired to find out what happened and then also gets hired by the other key rebel faction to also know what happened. Weston needs to learn the hard way how to investigate murder in a country where a host of dangerous people will want him to fail or may kill him even if he succeeds and avoid plunging the country into civil war.

Among the many things that impressed me about the novel was how easily the structure of a classic noir crime works in this setting. All the hallmarks of noir can be found as Alcacia has corrupt officials, gangs fighting for power and happy to kill for their power struggles and everyone has secrets and desires for power. We meet a well portrayed cast of femme fatales, mysterious rich men and dangerous fierce assassin that Weston has to navigate through, and I did note there is a slight tip of the hat to The Big Sleep in the story. At the same time Alcacia isn’t just LA or New York it’s a very different world and avoids the stereotype of making Africa a single film set. In what is a short and tightly constructed story Thompson has really worked hard to create a very varied world for Weston to explore. From the theatre for the rich to the bustling street markets Alcacia is shown as an intriguing mix of Yoruba culture mixed with western influences from a colonial past. An abandoned sea wall with tv and film graffiti are mixed with explanations of religion and superstitions. It’s a world that is fascinating and trying to work out what it wants just as much as it’s inhabitants and I really loved exploring how it worked and also hinted at further mysteries to come.

With Weston we have a very complex and not always likeable character. Told in first person our debut detective is very dry in sense of humour and as he finds his way into solving his first ever crime makes some stupid and sometimes very dangerous mistakes. This sense of humour and ability to laugh at himself makes you want to like him…but there is a sense of disquiet as we go on the journey with him. He’s enjoying himself perhaps a little too much; starts to embrace causing violence and perhaps a little too happy to explore his attraction to various women he meets. One question here is for the reader to decide if this is Weston’s true nature showing through or is this just him getting corrupted by those he meets – in Alcacia everyone wants to hustle for money and status. He doesn’t always come across a knight on dirty streets and that ambiguity actually makes the book stronger as we watch to see where Weston finally decides who he wants to be.

The plotting is wonderfully tight, and the story never feels to be treading water. From Weston getting assigned his case and being told he hasn’t really got a choice is he wants him and his family to live there is a well -paced mystery moving quickly from locations and suspects and some really fierce and powerful action sequences. He finds everyone has secrets and a new private investigator arriving on the scene upsets the balance of events. Lots of revelations are found and some very dangerous characters start to reveal themselves. I particularly liked the character of Chase who provides a counterbalance to Weston – they’re both from similar backgrounds yet Chase stayed home and has found himself a violent niche in one of the powerful factions. This adds an interesting mix of friendship, role model and rivalry developing as the two try to understand each other.

This is a very very good crime novel that hints to be a very interesting crime series. Mixing a charismatic lead detective, a wonderfully dark yet complex location with some fascinating characters there is everything here a crime lover will want. Thompson brings to this life with some really great writing sharing Weston’s take on a place he no longer really sees as home yet is pulling him into its mysteries. I really hope we get to see more of Weston and Alcacia in the future, but this is a book you really need to get hold of as you’re in for a treat

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