#3. COLD CHOP
The car looked modern. Even under the dim streetlamps, the paintwork was shiny. She steeled herself and approached, and saw something that made her feel sick to her stomach: a dent on the bonnet. She said, ‘This is the car that killed my sister.’
Ghana, 1966 … a time of coup plots and Cold War geopolitics. A young woman is fatally injured by a hit-and-run driver. The police don’t get involved, and it’s left to others to seek justice.
Fifty years later … amid a scramble to exploit Africa’s renewable energy potential, an engineer is found dead – electrocuted. The police say it’s an accident. His daughter says he was being threatened by a company that wants his land.
The two victims are related. Patrice Le Congo comes to suspect their deaths may be too.
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#1. BUKAVU BLUES
A macabre and mysterious murder. A country torn apart by brutal conflict. A man determined to stop the bloodshed.
Watching his people suffer years of appalling violence has made human rights defender Patrice Le Congo grow weary and cynical. But when schoolteacher Aurélia Mukunda turns to him for help after a mutilated body is found in a village, he can’t say no.
His investigation takes him on a journey to lawless tin mines and dangerous encounters with rebel groups and renegade army units – to the heart of a seemingly never-ending war that’s brought death and destruction to eastern Congo.
After more gruesome murders, which threaten to derail an international peace conference, the killers abduct Aurélia. And Patrice is faced with two challenges: to save the teacher and to save his country.
“As sharp and dangerous as a well-honed blade in a killer’s hand, Bukavu Blues takes the reader on a terrifying and exhilarating journey.” Mike Walker, co-author of Tumanbay: The City of a Thousand Faces
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#2. PALA PALA KILLER
A bitter feud. A spiral of violence. A fight for justice.
Human rights defender Patrice Le Congo is a man who’ll leave no stone unturned in search of the truth.
When the death of a park ranger in a Cameroonian rainforest is reported as a freak mishap, he has his doubts.
The authorities say the matter is closed. The ranger’s old friend seems to know something but is obsessed with the young football team he coaches. Even the reporter who broke the news says it’s not important and is more interested in the memoirs of an old king.
But Patrice discovers the ranger was murdered because of something he saw, and that the killing is linked to a conflict between displaced farmers and a multinational oil palm plantation.
Bloodshed follows, and Patrice begins to suspect a hidden hand is at work, stirring up trouble. With Cameroon’s colonial past catching up with the present, it’s down to him to prevent a catastrophe.
“A gripping story. And credible at every level. Pala Pala Killer is a work of reality fiction — all of it could have happened — addressing issues that should be of interest to all readers.”
John Stockwell, author of NYT best-seller In Search of Enemies and Red Sunset – The Full Story
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Plus, a short story prequel …
Peter Lewenstein 