An African Affair

May 2, 2011
Reporter Darnton draws on her five years in Africa for her less than successful debut novel, the first in a thriller series. In 1994, gutsy American journalist Lindsay Cameron, a foreign correspondent for the New York Globe, joins the paper's new full-time bureau in Nigeria at an extremely turbulent time. Dissidents are challenging the country's military dictator, Gen. Michael Olumide, whose repressive regime is funded by narcotics trafficking. While trying to expose Olumide's campaign against his opponents without running afoul of the authorities, Lindsay gets a respite from her grueling job in the person of James Duncan, an art gallery owner in search of West African art to purchase, who proves a potential love interest. Meanwhile, the CIA must regroup after the murder of their most valuable agent in Nigeria. While the portrayal of endemic corruption compels (almost every transaction requires a bribe), stock situations and a plot development that most readers will anticipate many chapters ahead of the lead character erode the hard-edged realism.

May 1, 2011
Its 1994, and New Yorkbased foreign correspondent Lindsay is in Lagos, covering a burgeoning protest movement against Nigerias brutally dictatorial president. Competitive, brave, stubborn, and foolhardy, Lindsay takes grave risks for lofty principles while missing whats going on right before her very eyes. She enrages the president during her exclusive interview, pursues a tricky and tragic story about drugs and hospitals, ignores signs that her art-collector boyfriend is acquiring more than carved sculptures, and struggles against dire odds to file potentially explosive stories while trying to figure out how much to trust Vicki, a CIA operative. Herself a journalist, Darnton has followed the lead of her Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and crime-writer husband, John Darnton, albeit with her own insights into reporting, investigating, and justice. Though not fully realized, Lindsay is engaging, and Darnton does capture the besieged citys impossible traffic, unreliable electricity, rampant poverty and fear, and profound resilience, making for a smart and diverting, if pro forma, international thriller that will satisfy readers looking for new talent and a brisk read. Perhaps Darnton will dig deeper next time.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)