The Whitewashed Tombs

Quartey’s fourth “Emma Djan Investigation” (following Last Seen in Lapaz) blends current events with a classic gumshoe detective story. In this case, however, the gumshoe isn’t a middle-aged white man in a trench coat but a Ghanaian woman, private eye Emma Djan. Someone is killing LGBTQIA+ activists advocating for equal rights in Ghana. It is a hot-button issue as Christian groups from outside Ghana lobby the government to legislate heteronormative values and criminalize everything else. Activist Marcelo Tetteh, an ex-boyfriend of Emma’s coworker Jojo is the first victim. Reluctant to enlist the support of the unreliable Ghanaian police force, Marcelo’s estranged father hires the Sowah Private Investigators Agency to find his son’s murderer. Emma and her partner Manu work to solve this mystery as issues of sexuality and gender divide Ghana. Emma infiltrates the right-wing International Congress of Families, finding deceit and hypocrisy along the way. Award-winning narrator and actor Adjoa Andoh personalizes the characters and captures the vibrantly described setting. She skillfully channels the book’s increasingly fraught atmosphere as activists stand off against virulent anti-LGBTQIA+ lobbyists.