{"id":47645,"date":"2020-12-29T10:59:06","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T15:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=47645"},"modified":"2020-12-29T10:59:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T15:59:49","slug":"accra-noir-edited-by-nana-ama-danquah-in-shelf-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/accra-noir-edited-by-nana-ama-danquah-in-shelf-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"Accra Noir edited by Nana-Ama Danquah [in Shelf Awareness]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"*STARRED REVIEW<\/strong>
\n“Accra is the perfect setting for noir fiction,” writes Nana-Ama Danquah (Willow Weep for Me<\/em>), Ghanaian American editor of this volume for Akashic Book’s long-running Noir series. Hardly an endorsement for tourism, this spine-chilling 13-story collection offers an opportunity to “consider the context, beware of a pretext, search for a subtext” on living \u2013 and dying \u2013 in a major metropolis consumed by poverty and desperation.<\/p>\n

Overlooked, underrepresented citizens exact their own due process in the opening and closing stories: the desperate literally feed the desperate in “Chop Money,” and a woman punishes her ex-pat boyfriend \u2013 and his wife and children \u2013 in “Instant Justice.” The powerful (mis)use their privilege in “Moon over Aburi,” which reveals a policewoman who castrated a rapist, and “Tabilo Wu\u0254f\u0254,” in which a PTSD-addled former soldier commits horrific violence. Corpses divulge their own murders in “Shape-Shifters” and “The Boy Who Wasn’t There.” Infidelity turns fatal as a woman listens to one lover kill another in “Fantasia<\/em>\u00a0in Fans and Flat Screens”; a philanderer inspires poisonous revenge in “Intentional Consequences”; a suspicious husband kills in “When a Man Loves a Woman.” “Trust No One” surely could be subtitles for “The Driver” who victimizes a pair of twins; “The Labadi Sunshine Bar,” where youth usurps experience; “Kweku’s House,” in which the elderly suffer; and “The Situation,” in which best friends lose all to a shared lover.<\/p>\n

“Much like Accra, these stories are not always what they seem,” Danquah warns. Interestingly, her literary roster includes an Irish ex-pat and a Parisian journalist. While an overwhelming bleak impression of Accra looms, the Ghanaian capital’s inhabitants haunt long after the final page.<\/p>\n

Discover<\/strong>: Poverty and desperation in Accra, Ghana, fuel the fatal crimes that permeate the 13 chilling stories in this volume of the long-running Akashic Noir series.<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: “Mystery & Thriller,” Shelf Awareness<\/em>, December 29, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*STARRED REVIEW “Accra is the perfect setting for noir fiction,” writes Nana-Ama Danquah (Willow Weep for Me), Ghanaian American editor of this volume for Akashic Book’s long-running Noir series. Hardly an endorsement for tourism, this spine-chilling 13-story collection offers an opportunity to “consider the context,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,287,142,6,6535,7],"tags":[9475,89,84,6608,75,10,68,13,212,9476,2571,6872],"class_list":["post-47645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-african","category-black-african-american","category-fiction","category-repost","category-short-stories","tag-accra-noir","tag-anthology-collection","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-death","tag-family","tag-haves-vs-have-nots","tag-love","tag-murder","tag-nana-ama-danquah","tag-series-noir","tag-shelf-awareness"],"yoast_head":"\nAccra Noir edited by Nana-Ama Danquah [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/accra-noir-edited-by-nana-ama-danquah-in-shelf-awareness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Accra Noir edited by Nana-Ama Danquah [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"*STARRED REVIEW “Accra is the perfect setting for noir fiction,” writes Nana-Ama Danquah (Willow Weep for Me), Ghanaian American editor of this volume for Akashic Book’s long-running Noir series. Hardly an endorsement for tourism, this spine-chilling 13-story collection offers an opportunity to “consider the context,...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/accra-noir-edited-by-nana-ama-danquah-in-shelf-awareness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-29T15:59:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-29T15:59:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/12\/Accra-Noir-Nana-Ama-Danquah-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"612\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"963\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Accra Noir edited by Nana-Ama Danquah [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/accra-noir-edited-by-nana-ama-danquah-in-shelf-awareness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Accra Noir edited by Nana-Ama Danquah [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon","og_description":"*STARRED REVIEW “Accra is the perfect setting for noir fiction,” writes Nana-Ama Danquah (Willow Weep for Me), Ghanaian American editor of this volume for Akashic Book’s long-running Noir series. 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