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Hour of the Red God: A Detective Mollel Novel    by Richard Crompton Amazon.com order for
Hour of the Red God
by Richard Crompton
Order:  USA  Can
Picador, 2014 (2013)
Hardcover, Softcover, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Barbara Lingens

Set in Kenya, and the start of a series, Hour of the Red God thrusts us quickly and deeply into the sights, smells and sounds of Nairobi. Our hero is Detective Mollel, a Maasai who has been kicked off the force for causing too much trouble for his superior.

There is an election coming up, and everyone knows it will be tense, Kikuyus against Luos. Then there is an unspeakably gruesome murder that has occurred. Since the victim is a Maasai woman, Mollel's superior asks him to get to the bottom of it quickly because no one else has the time or interest. Mollel's quest leads him from street walkers to religious evangelicals while trying to hang on as a single parent to his young son, who is being cared for by his increasingly critical mother-in-law.

Richard Crompton knows Nairobi well, and his dexterity in managing the twists and turns of this intricately plotted mystery make for an exciting tale. Readers are going to be clamoring for the next episode.

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