ImageNations

On July 12, 2011, Children of the Street , a new novel by the Ghanaian mystery writer and physician, Kwei Quartey , went on sale. Children of the Street is part of the Inspector Darko Dawson series. Copies could be purchased from bookshops or downloaded onto laptops, smartphones, Kindles, iPads, Kobos and other tablet devices. The first book in the series is Wife of the Gods . Praise for Children of the Street “Quartey cleverly hides the culprit, but the whodunit’s strength is as much in the depiction of a world largely unfamiliar to an American readership as in its playing fair…”  —STARRED  Publisher’s Weekly “Searing and original and done just right . . . Inspector Darko Dawson is relentless, and I look forward to riding with him again.”  —Bestselling Author Michael Connelly “Darko Dawson, with his secret struggle to stop smoking marijuana and his son’s chronic illness, is one of the most engaging characters this reader has ever encountered. The pol...

Dr. Kwei Quartey is an author whose interest lies in the Mystery genre. He has created the Inspector Darko Dawson's series, which uses the city of Accra as its background. The first in this series is titled Wife of the Gods.  ImageNations set out to interview this author who has not forgotten the genre which most of us read and loved but which we least write on, especially by Africans. 1. Who is Dr. Kwei Quartey? He's a new mystery writer who wants to be known worldwide in the same way people know Stieg Larsson, Alexander McCall Smith or Walter Mosley, and who wants to bring Ghana into reader's consciousness as a setting for mystery that competes on the same level as the US or Europe. 2. What motivates you to write? And why did you choose the mystery genre? The first part of the question isn't easy to answer. It's like asking a stage or screen actor what makes him or her perform. It's an unexplainable urge to create an absorbing story and share it with as man...

Book Reading Martin Egblewogbe read from his short story anthology, Mr. Happy and the Hammer of God at the Niagara Plus Hotel on July 28, 2010. This book reading was organised by the Writers Project of Ghana . Inspector Darko Dawson Mystery I have read numerous detective novels but none of them was authored by an African. Most novels by Africans either dwell on the past or complain of the present. Crime as it is known in novels is a 'no-go' area for most of us. This might be because of the humanity of our spirits and the attachment we have towards the spirits that we fail to see that it occurs, that it has become part of the present Africa and Ghana. But Kwei Quartey has not forgotten. He writes about it and he doesn't just gloss over it in his writings but it is the subject of his writings. This Physician cum Writer has created the Inspector Darko Dawson Mystery. The title of his first novel in this series was titled Wife of the Gods. Currently he is working on his...